A violent explosion shook Cali on Friday, plunging the third city of Colombia into horror. A trapped truck exploded in the street in front of the Marco Fidel Suárez air base, causing the death of at least five people and making 36 injured, according to mayor Alejandro Eder. Police and the army immediately completed the sector to secure the area and organize the emergency services.
The deflagration occurred in a busy area, not far from schools and residential buildings. Videos circulating on social networks show destroyed vehicles, a truck in flames and passers -by lying on the ground, rescued in an emergency. “There was a huge noise of explosion near the air base,” a witness told AFP, Hector Fabio Bolaños, 65, saying he saw “so many people injured”.
The authorities denounce a “narcoterrorist” act
Mayor Alejandro Eder described this attack as a “narcoterrorist attack”, while the governor of the region, Dilian Francisca Toro, denounced a “terrorist act”, adding: “Terrorism will not defeat us. Several buildings and a school had to be evacuated by safety measure.
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This attack occurs in a tense climate. Last June, a dissent from the former FARC guerrillas, known as the Central General Staff (EMC), claimed a series of bomb attacks and by firearms in and around Cali, which had cost the lives of seven people, including five civilians and two police officers. For the time being, no armed group has claimed the responsibility of the explosion.
