Car bomb wounds 17, 'calamity' averted
BOGOTA. June 20. KAZINFORM A car bomb wounded 17 people in Colombia's colonial-era city of Popayan, but a "calamity" was averted when police intercepted the vehicle before it reached its target in the main square, authorities said on Sunday; Kazinform refers to China Daily.
Acting on a tip, police stopped the car late Saturday night in an outlying neighborhood before it reached its intended destination, where soccer fans were celebrating a victory.
When officers suspected an explosive device was inside, they hauled out the driver and warned passers-by to leave the area before it exploded, police said.
The car was packed with 70 kg (154 pounds) of explosives and went off seven minutes after the auto was intercepted.
"Dozens of people would have been killed ... it would have been a calamity," a police officer in Cauca said of the potential casualties if the bomb had gone off as planned.
The blast injured 17 people, two seriously, according to the presidential administration in Bogota. Thirty-five homes and 12 motor vehicles were damaged and the explosion knocked out power in parts of Popayan, a city of about 300,000 people.
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