Truck bomb in Planadas, Colombia, kills four including a two-month-old baby

The attack

A truck loaded with explosives detonated on Sunday evening, 1 November, near a military base in Planadas, a municipality in the south of Tolima department in western Colombia. Governor Adriana Magali Matiz reported a preliminary toll of four dead, including a two-month-old baby, and posted the figures on social media. The number of injured has not been established, and the toll remains provisional.

The blast damaged part of the Hospital Centro in the municipality and several nearby homes. Mayor Juan Camilo Hueje announced a curfew in Planadas and the evacuation of the hospital. The injured were being treated at a nearby school, and the mayor told a local radio station that many people had been wounded.

Who may be behind it

No group has claimed responsibility, and the authorities had not identified who carried out the attack. The south of Tolima has significant activity by FARC dissident groups, including the Ismael Ruiz front, though no article links the attack to any of them. Hueje also said residents had seen drones flying over the urban centre of Planadas, in addition to the truck.

A wider wave of violence

AFP described Colombia as facing its worst wave of violence in 10 years, partly linked to gang activity. Reports on the attack describe guerrillas and cartels competing for control of drug trafficking routes in the country, the world's largest cocaine producer. Earlier attacks in the same period were a car bomb on 1 September that killed one person and injured 11, and an attack three weeks later, in September, in which explosive devices planted by a dissident FARC group killed three soldiers and wounded four others.

Reaction

Matiz condemned the attack on X and said attacks on civilians, soldiers and families cross a line the province does not tolerate. In a post on social media she described the attack as unacceptable and called for justice.

She also demanded justice and forceful action to stop what she called barbarity. The authorities have not received any claim of responsibility, and the investigation into who ordered and carried out the bombing is ongoing. The toll is still provisional, and the number of people hurt is not yet confirmed.