Colombia: Bomb attack on a police station in Bogota

A 12-year-old boy was killed and more than 30 other people, including at least six children, were injured in a bomb blast outside a Bogota police station on Saturday night, authorities said Sunday.

“One of the seven children injured, not even 12 years old, died in the early hours of yesterday,” Claudia Lopez, the mayor of the Colombian capital, said via Twitter yesterday.

“Unfortunately we have a five-year-old girl who is in a very serious condition,” he added, explaining that the child had a head injury.

General Eliezer Kamacho Jimenez, Bogota police chief, gave a new report, which put the number of wounded at 30.

Two police officers, who were injured in the attack, are in “stable” condition.

The children were “playing” near the police station when the explosion took place, Ms. Lopez explained, explaining that this was the second such attack since the beginning of the month in the popular district of Ciudad Bolivar.

The explosives were placed in a suitcase in front of the police station and “fired from a distance by phone,” Defense Minister Diego Molano told the media.

An “identical mechanism” had been used on March 5 in the attack on another police station in the same neighborhood, the minister added.

Authorities offered $ 80,000 ($ 72,800) for any information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attack the day before yesterday.

“I heard the bomb explode, I started running to escape the danger. I lost my hearing, my glasses, I was stunned,” said Leonardo Bocanegra, who was at a nearby store when the blast occurred.

In addition to the destruction of part of the police station, about sixty other buildings in the area were damaged.

Colombian President Ivan Duque, whose term ends in August – he has no right to be re-elected – expressed his “deep sorrow” via Twitter.

Colombia experiences resurgence of armed violence: rebels of former Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) rebels reject the 2016 peace agreement; members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) formally in Colombia; the heirs of far-right paramilitaries who were officially disarmed and disbanded in 2006; and other organizations that are primarily involved in drug trafficking, such as the Clan del Golfo.

SOURCE: AMPE

Source: Capital

You may also like

Oil: OPEC production increases – ing
Markets
Joshua

Oil: OPEC production increases – ing

The oil market continued down yesterday, with a stronger US dollar providing some difficulties. In addition, the lack of immediate