At least 14 people were killed and at least 38 wounded, including five children, after a bomb tore apart a busy road in southwestern Colombia, according to local authorities, Report informs via CNN.
The incident was part of a "wave" of terror attacks this weekend, Colombian officials also said, as deadly violence resurges in the country.
"An explosive device was detonated on the Pan-American Highway, in the El Túnel sector of Cajibío, in an indiscriminate attack against the civilian population," said Cauca Governor Octavio Guzmán in a post on X.
Guzmán later added in an update that Colombia"s Minister of Defense Pedro Sánchez was at the scene of the explosion to help "coordinate rescue efforts." Authorities are "initiating a national-level security council to address this serious situation," the governor said.
Videos published on social media showed the aftermath of the explosion, with a deep crater blown in the center of the road. Mangled cars, trucks, and buses covered in dust and debris lay around the site of the explosion, along with the bodies of its victims.
"We are facing a terrorist escalation that demands immediate responses," Guzmán said, issuing an "urgent" call to national authorities to guarantee security.
Authorities also received reports of violent incidents elsewhere, including in El Túnel, El Tambo, Caloto, Popayán, Guachené, Mercaderes, and Miranda, in what General Commander of Military Forces of Colombia Hugo Alejandro López Barreto described as "a wave of attacks."
Colombia"s Armed Forces have blamed the highway bombing on dissident factions of a defunct leftist militant group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), led by Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, a militant leader better known by his nom de guerre "Iván Mordisco."