Police and security personnel work at the scene where a car bomb exploded, according to authorities, in Bogota, Colombia on January 17. (REUTERS Photo)
BOGOTA, January 18 (Reuters): Colombian police on Friday said 21 people were killed and 68 injured after a car bomb exploded at a police academy in Bogota in an attack that prompted fears of a return to the country's violent past.
In Thursday's attack, which the government described as an act of terrorism, the car broke through checkpoints into the grounds of the General Santander School before it detonated, shattering windows of apartments nearby.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the blast, the deadliest since the government struck a peace deal with the Marxist FARC rebel group in 2016.
President Ivan Duque called the explosion a "crazy terrorist act" against unarmed cadets and ordered police and the military to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
"We will not rest until we capture and bring to justice the terrorists involved," Duque said late Thursday. "I tell the criminals that social repudiation awaits them, the rejection of all Colombians and the international community."
Local Caracol radio said that a suspect had been captured.
Investigators identified the car's driver as Jose Aldemar Rojas Rodriguez, who was among the dead, Colombian Attorney General Nestor Humberto Martinez said on Thursday.
