Shopping Center Blast in Colombia Kills 3 and Injures 9
Authorities immediately focused on the country’s largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army, or E.L.N., which in February claimed responsibility for a bombing near a bullring in Bogotá
that killed one police officer and injured at least 20 other people.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJUNE 17, 2017
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A strong explosion rocked one of the busiest shopping centers in Colombia’s capital on Saturday, killing three people
and injuring nine others, the authorities there said.
Mayor Enrique Peñalosa of Bogotá condemned what he called a "cowardly terrorist bombing" at the
upscale Centro Andino, a shopping center located in the heart of the city’s tourist district.
Mayor Peñalosa said one of the victims, a 23-year-old Frenchwoman, had been volunteering in a
poor neighborhood in Colombia for the past six months, and was preparing to return to France.
Last year, the country’s government reached a peace agreement with the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, which was much bigger than the E.L.N.
All vehicles entering the shopping center’s parking garage are screened by bomb-sniffing dogs, and security guards are present throughout the mall.
