Four police officers were injured in an explosion in Cúcuta on Tuesday, Oct. 27, close to a bridge linking Colombia and Venezuela and a tax agency office, while police investigated who was responsible.
Cúcuta Metropolitan Police commander Col. Pedro José Saavedra said the officers were taken to a hospital and were stable. The blast occurred in El Escobal, near the Francisco de Paula Santander International Bridge and a local office of Colombia’s Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales (DIAN), the tax and customs agency.
Early reports gave different injury counts. Caracol Radio initially reported three officers and four civilians hurt, while Canal 1 and La Región reported six injured, including two officers and four civilians. El Espectador later cited Saavedra’s count of four injured officers and reported that police said no civilians were hurt. Authorities had not publicly identified a suspect or attributed the explosion to an armed group, El Espectador reported.
Norte de Santander’s governor’s office condemned the explosion in a post on X. Gov. William Villamizar Laguado said police were investigating who was responsible, the Associated Press reported. The AP also reported that footage from the scene showed damage to a truck and several motorcycles.
