Adam Harvey
Adam Harvey, a reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Twitter/Adam Harvey

An Australian television journalist was shot in the neck on Thursday in Marawi, a southern Philippine city where Islamist militants are battling government troops. However, reports said that he did not suffer major injuries.

Adam Harvey, a reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, wrote on Twitter: "Lucky", alongside an image of an X-ray showing the bullet lodged in his neck, close to his spine. In another post, he tweeted: "Thanks everyone - I'm okay. Bullet is still in my neck, but it missed everything important."

Marawi, the most important Muslim city in the mainly Catholic Philippines, is facing a struggle between the government forces and hundreds of militants fighting under the black flags of the Islamic State (IS) group.

The government's crisis management committee spokesman, Zia Alonto Adiong said Harvey was inside the provincial capitol compound where local and foreign journalists have congregated during the more than three weeks of fighting. Although the compound is secured by the military, it is only about two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the pockets of the city that the gunmen control.

"I want to appeal to everyone you should be very careful because in our assessment the vicinity of the 103rd (military camp), the vicinity of the capitol is within the line of sight of the enemy," local military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jo-ar Herrera told AFP in the compound after the shooting incident.

Adiong said Harvey was taken to the nearby city of Iligan for medical treatment.

According to the authorities, at least 26 civilians and 58 security forces have died in the conflict. They said more than 200 militants have been killed.

Recently, most of the residents were seen abandoning the city of 200,000 people due to the fighting, which has seen the military relentlessly bomb the areas held by the militants, with residents fleeing to nearby towns. However, the military said that hundreds of civilians are trapped in the militant-controlled areas with some being used as human shields.