Mayor- More than 20 feared dead after bombing at exclusive club

BOGOTA, Colombia -- A powerful bomb rocked an exclusive club in Bogota Friday night, killing more than 20 people, leaving about 100 injured and setting the 10-story building on fire.

Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus said a theory that the explosion may have been an accident had been discarded by investigators, who determined that explosives caused the blast.

It was the worst terrorist attack in Colombia since Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel unleashed a wave of terrorism in the 1980s and early 1990s to avoid extradition to the United States.

The blast showered bricks and mortar onto a busy boulevard, caving in the roofs of cars that were passing by. Victims were taken to several hospitals. There was no immediate total casualty count.

Leftist rebels have recently begun bringing their four-decade-old war from the countryside into the cities, but no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the 10-story El Nogal Club in north Bogota. The club is frequented by politicians and business executives.

The blast was heard for miles in Bogota, a city of 7 million.

"It was a huge explosion. I thought an airplane had crashed outside," said Luis Moreno, who lives across the street from the club on Seventh Avenue and whose apartment building's windows were shattered.

The explosion blew out the walls of an interior parking garage at the club, raining rubble onto the street below. Paramedics were seen giving CPR to a man lying in the debris.

"We were having dinner when the bomb went off," a man, his faced blackened from smoke, said as his wife was carried away on a stretcher by paramedics. Scores of people stumbled from the wrecked building, many with their faces streaked with blood.

Jorge Velandia, who works at the club's miniature golf course, said the blast opened up a hole in one of the floors, and people tumbled through.

Several children were among the injured. Witnesses had said children were to put on a ballet show at the club Friday night.

Their fate was not immediately known.

Black smoke poured from the building, and flames licked out from upper windows. Two hours after the blast, firefighters had the blaze under control.

The club features restaurants, a gym and rooms for overnight guests.

"We felt an explosion that shook the whole building," said Alfonso Espejo, a doctor employed by the club. "It was almost impossible to breathe in the smoke."

Catalina Ortiz told Radionet that she was driving with her daughter and husband on the main street in front of the club when she felt the explosion and thought her car had been hit.

"When I looked back I saw the club was on fire, with a ball of fire coming out of the third or fourth floor. While I was looking back, things began to fall out of the building," she said.

The destruction recalled the drug wars of a decade ago. Since Escobar was killed by police in 1993, Colombia's cities have largely been immune from the violence in the countryside.