- Title: COLOMBIA: 23 DIE IN BOMB EXPLOSION
- Date: 10th June 1995
- Summary: MEDELLIN AND BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (JUNE 10, 1995) MEDELLIN (RTV - ACCESS ALL) SV VARIOUS OF DESTROYED CARS AND VENDORS STANDS AT SAN ANTONIO PARK SV VARIOUS OF BLOODY DEBRIS SCATTERED THROUGHOUT PARK / BLOOD ON TRUCK SV WOUNDED BEING EVACUATED BY RESCUE PERSONNEL / AMBULANCE MOVES OFF SV WOUNDED BEING HELPED AWAY / WOUNDED WOMAN BEI
- Embargoed: 6th July 2005 16:46
- Keywords:
- Location: MEDELLIN AND BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA4E9F2ZV19WTEOULB1VHNYHCDM
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: At least 23 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a shrapnel bomb hidden in the base of a sculpture exploded in the middle of a street party in Medellin on Saturday (June 10).
Authorities said it was not immediately clear whether drug traffickers or Marxist guerrillas were responsible for the bombing in Colombia's second-largest city.
The blast was the country's worst single terrorist act in more than four years. One suspect was arrested.
Medellin Metropolitan Police Chief General Alfredo Salgado said the dead and injured were "hurt by the explosion of a device which was put here during a street party for humble people who don't deserve this." Salgado said five people were killed immediately by the bomb.
The remainder died on their way to local clinics or hospitals. Many of the victims were street vendors, their bodies mutilated by scores of nuts, bolts and nails that were wrapped up with the bomb.
Witnesses said blood and body parts were scattered over a wide area of the park. Local television showed a bloodied dismembered arm lying on the ground and a bench stained with blood.
Red Cross officials appealed for blood donors as casualty wards overflowed with victims.
Asked who planted the bomb, Salgado noted Marxist guerrilla rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had recently celebrated their 31st anniversary and the Day of the Guerrilla.
"It's possible that it was an absurd action by those demented elements of the subversion," he said. One suspect was caught by police about 30 minutes before the explosion in the park with five coffee jars filled with black gunpowder.
The explosion was the first such attack since President Ernesto Samper began a crackdown on the country's most powerful drug cartel. It came only one day after police arrested top cocaine kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela.
The style of the attack -- a blast at a street party for the poor designed to cause maximum injury -- was unusual for rebel attacks, which are generally directed only at security forces.
Police said the blast ripped through the San Antonio park in central Medellin close to police headquarters and a recently installed statue of a bird by famed sculptor Fernando Botero, father of the present Defence Minister, who has the same name.
The last major bomb attack in Colombia was a blast organised by Medellin drug cartel boss Pablo Escobar at a shopping centre in Bogota in April 1993, which killed 13. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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