Blast at Bogota Club Kills At Least 9
By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer
BOGOTA, Colombia - An explosion rocked an exclusive club in the Colombian capital Friday night, killing at least nine people, leaving more than 100 injured and setting the 10-story building afire.
The blast showered bricks and mortar onto a busy boulevard, denting and damaging cars that were passing by.
Police said nine people were known dead and 114 were injured, RCN radio and television reported.
Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus said it was unknown whether the explosion in the El Nogal Club — frequented by politicians and business executives — was accidental or caused by a bomb. Leftist rebels have recently begun bringing their four-decade war from the countryside into the cities.
"It was a huge explosion. I thought an airplane had crashed outside," said Luis Moreno, who lives across the street from the 10-story club on Seventh Avenue in north Bogota. The explosion blew out walls of two stories of an interior parking garage, raining rubble onto the street below.
Jorge Velandia, who works at the club's mini-golf course, said the blast opened up a hole in one of the floors, and people tumbled through.
Paramedics were seen giving CPR to a man lying amid the rubble.
"We were having dinner when the bomb went off," a man, who did not give his name, said as his wife was carried away on a stretcher by paramedics.
Black smoke poured from the building, and flames licked out from upper windows. Media reports said that people were still trapped inside.
Catalina Ortiz told Radionet she was driving on in front of the club when she felt the explosion and thought her car had been hit.
"When I looked back I saw the club was on fire, with a ball of fire coming out of the third or fourth floor," she said. "While I was looking back, things began to fall out of the building."
Nearby buildings were also damaged in the explosion, authorities said. |
