Dissident Farc faction blamed for attack on Pan-American Highway that also injured 36 people in south-western region
The death toll in a weekend highway bombing in Colombia has risen to 20, with another 36 people injured, amid a surge of violence ahead of presidential elections next month.
Buses and vans were left mangled in the blast on Saturday on the Pan-American Highway, in the restive south-western Cauca department.
The governor, Octavio Guzmán, described the bombing as the area’s “most brutal and ruthless attack against the civilian population in decades”, adding that it left a crater 200 cubic metres in size. Several cars were flipped over by the force of the explosion.
Fifteen women and five men, all adults, were killed, he said. Of the injured, three people remained in intensive care. Five children were also injured but were “out of danger”.
