Leader vows to catch bombers

BOGOTA: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos vowed to capture those responsible for detonating a homemade bomb that killed three people, including a Frenchwoman, in a shopping mall on Saturday.

Santos offered a reward of about $35 000 (R448 400) to anyone with information about the attack.

The bomb, placed behind a toilet in a second-floor women’s bathroom, went off as the mall was filled with Father’s Day shoppers.

Much attention has focused on the National Liberation Army, the last major rebel movement still active in Colombia, which has carried out a spate of recent attacks against mostly police targets in the capital.

But leaders of the group have repudiated the bombing.

Santos said the attack would not derail peace efforts that have already resulted in a peace deal with the country’s main guerrilla movement, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

“The Colombian people have the temperance, the resilience and the bravery to fight terrorism successfully,” he said. – ANA-AP