Colombia's President Gustavo Petro attends a meeting in Bogota, Colombia, on October 3, 2022. LUISA GONZALEZ / AP
A cocaine laboratory explosion killed seven people and injured 10 Friday, January 23, on Colombia's Pacific coast near the border with Ecuador, police said Friday. A preliminary investigation found a gas cylinder exploded while being used to make the drug, police colonel John Jairo Urrea told local media via video.
A dissident group called the National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army, a faction of the defunct FARC guerrilla group, confirmed the incident.
"Due to human error and the handling of gas cylinders... the place went up in flames in a matter of seconds," the group said in a statement.
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