Car bomb kills 6 in Medellin park

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- A bomb blast ripped through a crowded park in Medellin Thursday night, killing at least six people and injuring dozens, according to local authorities.

The car bomb went off in the Parque Leras, a popular evening gathering place in an upscale area of Colombia's third-largest city. Officials say the bomb, approximately 70 pounds of explosives, was in a Volkswagen.

It was the second car bomb to explode in less than 15 days in violence-racked Colombia, which is torn by a 37-year-old war that has killed 40,000 civilians in the last decade.

"Unfortunately, the toll so far is four people dead and 18 injured," Medellin Police Chief Gen. Jorge Daniel Castro, told Reuters in a telephone interview from the scene.

Television showed images of people, hurt by glass fragments and covered in blood, being treated at the scene and rushed for treatment in ambulances and private cars.

The explosion occurred about 10:15 p.m. (0315 GMT).

On May 4, a powerful car bomb ripped through a luxury hotel in Cali, Colombia's second-largest city, injuring 32 people.

Medellin Mayor Luis Perez Gutierrez said the attack could be linked to a recent police crackdown on the city's notorious criminal gangs. "We've had a lot of recent successes against criminal gangs. It wouldn't be surprising these bands, out of desperation, are behind the attack," he told private Caracol radio.

Medellin, the industrial hub of Colombia, is famous for being the city where former drug boss Pablo Escobar built his multimillion dollar empire before he was gunned down by an elite police unit on a Medellin rooftop in 1993.

Although the Medellin drug cartel has been dismantled, the city is still corroded by drug-related violence.

Colombia, the world's No.1 producer of cocaine, is torn by a drug-fueled war that pits leftist guerrillas against outlawed right-wing militias and the army.

No group has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack.

Reuters contributed to this report.