Bombing hits busy centre
A homemade bomb placed in a women’s restroom rocked one of the busiest shopping centres in Colombia’s capital, killing three people, including a French woman, and wounding nine others.
Witnesses told of being evacuated from movie theatres and stores after the blast at the upmarket Centro Andino in the heart of Bogota’s tourist district. Ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the scene and the injured were taken to a hospital, where two later died.
Police said a potent explosive, possibly made of ammonium nitrate, had caused the destruction.
Mayor Enrique Penalosa called it a “cowardly terrorist bombing,” and attention immediately focused on the National Liberation Army, which is the last rebel movement still active in Colombia. The group, known as the ELN, carried out a spate of recent attacks against mostly police targets in Bogota, but leaders denied involvement in the latest bombing.
President Juan Manuel Santos made a late-night local time visit to the shopping mall, where he strongly condemned the attack but declined to speculate on who was behind it. He said he would meet top security advisers today before heading out on a previously-scheduled tour of Europe that includes a planned visit to France.
“The best answer to cowardly terrorism is to not let it unnerve us,” he said.
“The French know perfectly how to respond to these terrorist attacks and we Colombians too have the will not to let ourselves be intimidated.”
Penalosa said the 25-year-old French victim, identified as Julie Huynh, had been in Bogota for the past six months volunteering at a school in a poor neighbourhood. He said she was preparing to return to France in the coming days in the company of her mother, who was with her in Bogota.
In a cruel irony, Huynh worked with a French-backed charity helping people displaced by Colombia’s long conflict gain the skills and expertise needed to rebuild. The ELN, which is engaged in long-running peace talks with the government, rejected accusations it was behind the attack. “We ask for seriousness from people making unfounded and reckless accusations,” ELN negotiators at peace talks taking place in Ecuador said on Twitter. — AP