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Car bomb kills 11 near Bogota, Colombia
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- A car bomb early Sunday killed 11 people and wounded at least 70 others in an entertainment district near the Colombian capital of Bogota, police said. The blast occurred about 1 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT) in a car in central Villavicencio, a town 45 miles southeast of Bogota, police said. Police were having trouble identifying the victims as they sorted through a tangle of body parts. Three of the wounded were police. Authorities said the car bomb detonated about four minutes after another, smaller device that had been placed near the car went off.
The smaller bomb, which contained about 40 pounds of explosives, caused no casualties. But as onlookers and police approached the scene of the first blast, a second bomb packed with about 150 pounds of explosives inside the car detonated, police said. Witnesses said the street was full as nearby discotheques and restaurants were emptying in this provincial center of about 350,000 residents. Several buildings were damaged in the blast. Villavicencio's mayor offered a $7,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. It was not immediately clear who was behind the explosion, but authorities suggested the blast might be the work of leftist rebels known as the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. If so, it would be the worst such attack since February 20, when peace talks between the government and the rebels broke down. -- CNN Correspondent Karl Penhaul contributed to this report. |
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