In first and fourth paragraphs, please read "Crew Gold Corp" and not "Intex Resources" (corrects company)

MANILA, March 7 (Reuters) - Suspected communist rebels attacked a gold mine in the Philippines part-owned by Oslo-listed Crew Gold Corp <CRU.OL> and set fire to equipment, police said on Friday.

At least 50 armed men, believed to be from the communist New People's Army (NPA) stormed the Apex Mines Company <APX.PS> <APXB.PS> site in the Compostela Valley, a famous gold-rush area in the south, on Thursday, Senior Inspector Adolfo Eyan said.

They disarmed the mine's security guards and set fire to equipment. The rebels also seized several rifles, Eyan said.

Apex is part-owned by Crew Gold Corp.

The NPA, waging one of the world's longest-running communist insurgencies, is opposed to foreign and local corporations mining Philippine sites and often attacks their operations.

Last month, two security guards were killed in an attack on a gold processing plant also in the Compostela Valley.

Suspected NPA rebels attacked a mine majority-owned by the world's fifth-biggest miner London-listed Xstrata Plc <XTA.L>, setting fire to buildings, elsewhere in the south in January. (Reporting by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by David Fogarty)

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