At least eight people died and 41 others injured after a car bomb detonated outside the General Santander National Police Academy in the Colombian capital of Bogota on Thursday.
A high-ranking police official said that the car bomb could be a suspected suicide attack. Police said that the driver rammed the vehicle into the compound of the police academy at full speed and refused to stop despite being ordered to, CNN reported.
The suspect is believed to have died in the explosion.
Condemning the incident, Colombian President Ivan Duque termed it as a terrorist attack and promised to bring perpetrators to justice.
He later visited the police academy and directed law enforcement authorities to launch a manhunt in identifying the people behind the attack.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez identified "the material author of the attack, a man named Jose Aldemar Rojas Rodriguez, who was driving the car that entered the academy," as per the report. He added that the suspect was reportedly driving with about 80 kilograms of explosives in the vehicle.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. Bogota has often been the hotbed of conflict between leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries and drug cartel.
After peace talks with Duque were stalled in September, last year, the left-wing National Liberation Army has often targeted police officers in the capital city. The group failed on agree on Duque’s demands, which included freeing over a dozen hostages, including six Colombian soldiers.
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