Blast leaves one dead, several injured in Colombia's capital Bogotá

An explosion in Colombian capital killed one person and injured several, Sputnik reported.

An explosion in the Centro Andino shopping center in Colombia's capital of Bogotá killed one person and injured eleven. Bogota Mayor Enrique Penalosa announced that it was a terrorist attack.

"A coward terrorist attack in Centro Andino hurts me. There is one woman dead and… 11 injured," Penalosa wrote on Twitter.

Penalosa also said that the victim was a 23-year-old French woman. </s> 10 dead in car bombing at police academy in Colombia capital

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A car bomb exploded at a heavily guarded police academy in Colombia's capital on Thursday, killing 10 people and injuring dozens in an attack that recalled the bloodiest chapters of the country's drug-fueled guerrilla conflict.

The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern Bogota was chaotic in the aftermath of the midmorning attack, the biggest against a police or military facility in Bogota in years.

Videos circulating on social media show panicked officers hauling injured colleagues on stretchers with debris and body parts strewn in front of red tile-roofed cadet barracks. In the distance, the skeletal steel remains of the truck used in the attack can be seen still burning while approaching ambulances blare.

President Ivan Duque rushed back to the capital with his top military advisers from a visit to a western state to oversee the police investigation, which points to a possible suicide bombing - something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the Andean nation.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said a 56-year-old man named Jose Aldemar Rojas, driving a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of pentolite, carried out the attack. He said the car had its last official mechanical revision some six months ago in the eastern state of Arauca, along the border with Venezuela.

"This is an attack not only against the young, the security forces or the police. It's an attack against society," Duque said in a brief statement after surveying the blast scene. "This demented terrorist act will not go unpunished."

The defense ministry said 10 people were killed and another 66 injured. Among the dead were a Panamanian and an Ecuadorian national.

Rafael Trujillo said he was delivering a care package to his son Gerson, who entered the school just two days ago, when he was stopped in his tracks by the blast that destroyed windows in apartment buildings as far as four blocks away.

"I'm sad and very worried because I don't have any information about my son," said Trujillo, standing outside the facility, where police officers had set up a taped perimeter as forensic specialists surveyed the blast site.

Authorities were at a loss to explain how the vehicle slipped through a gate permanently protected by explosive-sniffing dogs, heavily-armed guards and security cameras. But there were unconfirmed reports based on leaked recordings of phone conversations of officers on the scene that the driver rammed through the checkpoint on a kamikaze mission.

Health authorities in Bogota appealed for residents to donate blood at one of four collection points in the capital to help treat those injured, the majority of whom were rushed to a police hospital.

For decades, residents of Bogota lived in fear of being caught in a bombing by leftist rebels or Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel. But as Colombia's conflict has wound down, security has improved and residents have lowered their guard.

While authorities had yet to suggest who was behind the attack, and no armed group claimed responsibility, attention was focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army, which has been stepping up attacks on police targets in Colombia amid a standoff with the conservative Duque over how to re-start stalled peace talks.

The group known as the ELN was long considered a lesser military threat than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose 7,000 guerrilla fighters disarmed as part of a 2016 peace accord.

But in the wake of the peace deal the Cuban-inspired insurgency has been gaining strength, especially along the eastern border with Venezuela, where it has carried out a number of kidnappings and bombings of oil pipelines. That has hardened Duque's resolve in refusing to resume peace talks that have been stalled since he took office last August, despite a rebel offer of a cease-fire.

Other possible assailants include the country's Usuga drug cartel, which has suffered a number of setbacks at the hands of the police, and dissident members of the FARC.

Several foreign leaders condemned the attack, as did the former commanders of the disbanded FARC.

The United Nations peace mission in Colombia called it "an unacceptable criminal act which goes against the efforts the country is making to steer away from the violence, and work ... to build a more prosperous and peaceful future."

An explosion at the upmarket Andino shopping mall in June 2017 killed three people, including a French woman, and injured another 11. Police later arrested several suspected members of a far-left urban guerrilla group called the People Revolutionary's Movement for the bombing.

But it has been more than a decade since a police or military installation in the capital has suffered a major bombing. A blast at military university in 2006 left almost two dozen people injured.

Ariel Avila, an analyst who tracks violence, said that in the last four years, there have been 28 attacks in the capital with explosives. While the majority has been carried out with low-grade homemade materials and grenades that have damaged property but left no casualties, he said police intelligence and checkpoints surrounding the city need to be reinforced to prevent more attacks.

"We need to fortify the city again," he told Blu Radio. </s> BOGOTA (Reuters) - Three women were killed and nine wounded after an explosive device detonated in a restroom in a busy upscale shopping center in Colombia’s capital on Saturday.

Rescue personnel and an ambulance are seen behind yellow tape outside the Andino shopping center after an explosive device detonated in a restroom, in Bogota, Colombia June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

The Andino shopping mall in an exclusive area of Bogota was evacuated after the blast, which occurred around 5 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) in the women’s toilet. The commercial center was packed with people buying gifts ahead of Father’s Day celebrations on Sunday.

Police said the device was placed in a toilet bowl in the second-floor restroom. President Juan Manuel Santos denounced the attack and promised to bring those responsible to justice.

“We won’t let terrorism frighten us,” Santos said from inside the shopping center.

“Bogotanos should feel safe and protected. We won’t let our guard down but we mustn’t panic. That’s what terrorists want.”

One of the victims was a 23-year-old French woman who had been volunteering in a poor area of the city, Bogota Mayor Enrique Penalosa told reporters.

Streets surrounding the shopping center were closed and buildings cleared as ambulances raced to the scene and security officials tried to establish who was responsible for the blast. Bomb squad specialists combed the area for additional devices.

Photographs on social media showed a woman slumped against the wall in a pool of blood and what appeared to be a shard of metal piercing her back. In front of her was another woman with her leg torn apart above the knee.

Another image showed the destroyed toilet cubicle with a blood-splattered handrail and debris strewn over the floor.

Santos ordered an investigation into the incident.

Security has improved in Bogota over the past decade as police and military increased surveillance and put more armed officials on the streets. At one time all bags were checked at the entrance to shopping malls, but that has been vastly scaled back in recent years.

Sniffer dogs still check cars at parking facilities in the capital.

A peace accord signed last year with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s biggest guerrilla group, raised confidence bomb attacks might cease.

The country’s second-largest insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), in February exploded a bomb in Bogota, injuring dozens of police.

The Marxist ELN, currently negotiating peace with the government, in a tweet condemned the attack against civilians.

Authorities said there have been threats of attacks in Bogota by the so-called Gulf Clan, a group of former right-wing paramilitary fighters who traffic drugs. </s> Forensic workers, behind top, work the scene of a deadly car bombing at the General Santander police academy in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. (AP Photo/John Wilson Vizcaino)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A car bomb exploded at a heavily guarded police academy in Colombia’s capital on Thursday, killing 10 people and injuring dozens in an attack that recalled the bloodiest chapters of the country’s drug-fueled guerrilla conflict.

The scene outside the General Santander police academy in southern Bogota was chaotic in the aftermath of the midmorning attack, the biggest against a police or military facility in Bogota in years.

Videos circulating on social media show panicked officers hauling injured colleagues on stretchers with debris and body parts strewn in front of red tile-roofed cadet barracks. In the distance, the skeletal steel remains of the truck used in the attack can be seen still burning while approaching ambulances blare.

President Ivan Duque rushed back to the capital with his top military advisers from a visit to a western state to oversee the police investigation, which points to a possible suicide bombing – something unprecedented in decades of political violence in the Andean nation.

Chief Prosecutor Nestor Martinez said a 56-year-old man named Jose Aldemar Rojas, driving a 1993 Nissan pick-up loaded with 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of pentolite, carried out the attack. He said the car had its last official mechanical revision some six months ago in the eastern state of Arauca, along the border with Venezuela.

“This is an attack not only against the young, the security forces or the police. It’s an attack against society,” Duque said in a brief statement after surveying the blast scene. “This demented terrorist act will not go unpunished.”

The defense ministry said 10 people were killed and another 66 injured. Among the dead were a Panamanian and an Ecuadorian national.

Rafael Trujillo said he was delivering a care package to his son Gerson, who entered the school just two days ago, when he was stopped in his tracks by the blast that destroyed windows in apartment buildings as far as four blocks away.

“I’m sad and very worried because I don’t have any information about my son,” said Trujillo, standing outside the facility, where police officers had set up a taped perimeter as forensic specialists surveyed the blast site.

Authorities were at a loss to explain how the vehicle slipped through a gate permanently protected by explosive-sniffing dogs, heavily-armed guards and security cameras. But there were unconfirmed reports based on leaked recordings of phone conversations of officers on the scene that the driver rammed through the checkpoint on a kamikaze mission.

Health authorities in Bogota appealed for residents to donate blood at one of four collection points in the capital to help treat those injured, the majority of whom were rushed to a police hospital.

For decades, residents of Bogota lived in fear of being caught in a bombing by leftist rebels or Pablo Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel. But as Colombia’s conflict has wound down, security has improved and residents have lowered their guard.

While authorities had yet to suggest who was behind the attack, and no armed group claimed responsibility, attention was focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army, which has been stepping up attacks on police targets in Colombia amid a standoff with the conservative Duque over how to re-start stalled peace talks.

The group known as the ELN was long considered a lesser military threat than the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, whose 7,000 guerrilla fighters disarmed as part of a 2016 peace accord.

But in the wake of the peace deal the Cuban-inspired insurgency has been gaining strength, especially along the eastern border with Venezuela, where it has carried out a number of kidnappings and bombings of oil pipelines. That has hardened Duque’s resolve in refusing to resume peace talks that have been stalled since he took office last August, despite a rebel offer of a cease-fire.

Other possible assailants include the country’s Usuga drug cartel, which has suffered a number of setbacks at the hands of the police, and dissident members of the FARC.

Several foreign leaders condemned the attack, as did the former commanders of the disbanded FARC.

The United Nations peace mission in Colombia called it “an unacceptable criminal act which goes against the efforts the country is making to steer away from the violence, and work … to build a more prosperous and peaceful future.”

An explosion at the upmarket Andino shopping mall in June 2017 killed three people, including a French woman, and injured another 11. Police later arrested several suspected members of a far-left urban guerrilla group called the People Revolutionary’s Movement for the bombing.

But it has been more than a decade since a police or military installation in the capital has suffered a major bombing. A blast at military university in 2006 left almost two dozen people injured.

Ariel Avila, an analyst who tracks violence, said that in the last four years, there have been 28 attacks in the capital with explosives. While the majority has been carried out with low-grade homemade materials and grenades that have damaged property but left no casualties, he said police intelligence and checkpoints surrounding the city need to be reinforced to prevent more attacks.

“We need to fortify the city again,” he told Blu Radio. </s> A terrifying explosion near a bullring in Colombia killed one and injured at least 30 people.

Most of the victims were police officers, hit by the blast as they prepared for anti-bullfighting protests in the capital, Bogota, on Sunday.

According to the mayor's office, police are now ' pursuing terrorists '.

Details of the cause of the blast were not immediately available, but media images showed a police officer in a shredded uniform walking with support from his colleagues, as well as debris in the road, broken glass and damage to apartment buildings close by.

Another person was gravely injured, the mayor's office said on its Twitter account.

"It was horrible. We were a half block away and it was tremendous. The apartment on the second floor shook," said witness Cecilia Gomez

Bogota's mayor, Enrique Penalosa, said the police would go after the perpetrators.

"It is a message to reject terrorism. We are going to pursue terrorism, we are going to do everything we can to capture them.

"I can tell you that we have the whole sector of La Macarena [sector where the blast occurred] secured.

"In a few minutes we are going to make way. We have people who are injured," he said.

After the attack, hundreds of residents gathered at La Santamaria plaza for a minute of silence.

Protesters have gathered weekly to demonstrate against bullfighting in Bogota, which resumed last month for the first time in four years.

The ban was lifted by the constitutional court which said it was part of the national heritage, prompting weekly clashes with police. </s> The powerful explosion that rocked a shopping center in the Colombian capital’s tourist district has been called a terrorist attack by Bogota’s mayor. At least three women, including a French volunteer, died in the blast. Several others were seriously injured.

Bogota Mayor Enrique Peñalosa has tweeted that three women were killed in the “bomb” blast, and one more remains in serious condition. Peñalosa has called the explosion a “cowardly terrorist attack.”

The explosion targeted the Centro Andino Mall in the Zona Rosa neighborhood, which is regarded as one of the most luxurious upper-class and tourist districts in Latin America. The blast occurred in the women’s restroom on the mall’s second floor.

One of the victims has been identified as a 23-year-old French woman who had spent six months volunteering in Colombia. The woman, who is said to have worked in a poor Colombian neighborhood, was reportedly killed days before her planned return to France.

The other two victims, who have been identified in a hospital statement as a 31-year-old woman and a 27-year-old woman, are believed to be Colombian. The statement said one woman remains in critical condition.

Earlier, extremely graphic images of seriously injured women and a video showing a smoke-filled mall corridor appeared on social media.

RT Spanish earlier cited police as confirming at least 11 injuries were caused by the blast.

Ambulances and fire engines are working at the scene, and the entire mall has reportedly been evacuated.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos strongly condemned the attack, announcing that he was returning to the capital to take charge of the situation.

France's ambassador to Colombia, Gautier Mignot, tweeted that he is “shocked by the death” of a French woman in the blast and vowed to provide support for the victim’s family.

Meanwhile, messages of condolences for the victims and words of support for the Colombian government have started pouring in. The Mexican government said it “expresses its solidarity with the people and the government of Colombia,” and “deplores the loss of human lives.”

Conveying its condolences to the families of the victims and those who were affected by the blast, the US Embassy in Bogota pledged to “provide any support requested by the Colombian authorities” in the aftermath of the attack.

Meanwhile, the National Liberation Army (ELN), a guerrilla group engaged in an ongoing armed standoff with government forces, denied responsibility for the attack.

“ELN-Paz repudiates the attack on Centro Comercial Andino against civilians. We share the pain and we sympathize with the victims,” the group’s negotiators wrote on its official Twitter account.

In February, ELN claimed responsibility for the bomb attack in Bogota, in which a police officer was killed and dozens of people were injured, including civilians. </s> A police officer was killed and 30 other people were injured in a blast in Colombia’s capital on Sunday before a bullfighting event where protests had been expected, authorities and local media reported.

Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa described the explosion as a “criminal terrorist attack” aimed at police and vowed to capture those behind it, although no additional details were immediately provided.

Twenty-six of the wounded were officers, the district secretary for Security, Coexistence and Justice said in a statement. In a Twitter post from a hospital, Peñalosa said four of them lost an eye. </s> Three people were killed in one of Colombia’s biggest shopping malls Saturday after a homemade bomb placed in the women’s bathroom exploded.

Police say the explosive that killed 3 and wounded 9 others was possibly made of ammonium nitrate.

Witnesses say they were evacuated from the Centro Andino Mall, a shopping center located in Colombia’s capital, after the blast.

Emergency units rushed to the scene and the injured were taken to a nearby hospital where two victims later died.

Mayor Enrique Penalosa called the attack a “cowardly terrorist bombing,” which turned the focus on the National Liberation Army which is the last rebel movement still active in Colombia. ELN, as it is also known by, has had a history of attacks in the capital of Bogota but the rebel group’s leaders denied any involvement in Saturday’s bombings.

“We ask for seriousness from people making unfounded and reckless accusations,” ELN negotiators at peace talks taking place in neighboring Ecuador said on Twitter. “This is the way people are trying to tear up the peace process.”

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made a visit to the bomb site late Saturday evening where he condemned the attack but declined to speculate who was behind it.

“The best answer to cowardly terrorism is to not let it unnerve us,” he said.

The president also said that he would meet with top security advisers Sunday before heading out on a scheduled trip to Europe.

One of the victims included a 25-year-old French citizen. The woman, identified as Julie Huynh, was living in Bogota for the past six months volunteering at a school in a poor neighborhood. Huynh was expected to return to France in the coming days.

“The French know perfectly how to respond to these terrorist attacks,” President Santos said, “and we Colombians too have the will not to let ourselves be intimidated.”

The president is expected to visit France on his European tour.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> The blast happened at 09:30 local time at the General Santander school, an academy for police cadets in the south of the city. Authorities said José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez was the author of the attacks, but have yet to identify a motive.

Images on social media show a charred vehicle in front of the police academy, surrounded by debris. Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion, which destroyed windows in surrounding buildings. Ambulances and helicopters then rushed to the scene.

Local reports suggest that a grey pick-up truck laden with explosives, entered the school compound and when it was stopped by guards at a checkpoint, the driver accelerated, driving into a wall before detonating. The driver of the car is believed to be among the dead. Authorities confirmed that vehicle carried some 80 kilos of pentolite, an explosive often used in military implements and in the elaboration of improvised antipersonnel mines.

The death toll, reported by the defence ministry, currently stands at nine, and the Bogota health ministry said a further 54 people were injured. Among those injured are a Panamanian and an Ecuadorean national. The identities of those killed has not yet been released.

President Ivan Duque, who had been visiting a western state of Colombia at the time of what he said was a “miserable act of terrorism”, returned immediately to the capital. Arriving at the scene he held a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the attack. In a public address he said "This is an attack not only against our youth, or our police force. It is an attack against the whole of our society."

Other politicians took to Twitter to condemn the attacks and express solidarity with the police. One local councillor in Bogotá, Emel Rojas, tweeted that the whole city was in mourning over the “cowardly act”. The French ambassador to Colombia, Gautier Mignot, joined other diplomats condemning the attack. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families”, he wrote.

Authorities identified José Aldemar Rojas Rodríguez as the author of the attack, but have yet to confirm whether he carried out the attack independently or as part of an armed group. Attention initially focused on leftist rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), who have stepped up attacks on police in recent months as peace talks with Duque’s government have stalled. Last week the ELN rejected Mr Duque’s demands for a unilateral ceasefire before negotiations in Havana resume.

The blast recalls high-profile attacks aimed at killing police officers associated with the worst of Colombia’s long battle against leftist rebels and drug cartels. Since a peace agreement was signed in 2016 with the FARC, the then-largest rebel group, such attacks have become less frequent.

The last deadly bombing to hit the capital was in June 2017, when a bomb exploded in an upmarket shopping mall, killing three people, including a French woman. But it has been more than a decade since a police or military installation has been targeted by a major bombing. In 2006, a bomb at a military university left almost two dozen people injured.

Residents of Bogotá have been asked to donate blood at four points across the capital to help doctors treating the scores of wounded.
An explosive device is detonated in a commercial center in the Colombian city of Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela, with at least 12 injured.