Bomb Kills at Least 40

February 8, 2003 www.newsday.com

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. The blast showered bricks and mortar onto a busy boulevard, denting and damaging cars that were passing by. Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus said a theory that the explosion in the El Nogal Club - frequented by politicians and business executives - may have been an accident had been discarded by investigators, who determined that explosives caused the blast. Leftist rebels have recently begun bringing their four-decade war from the countryside into the cities. "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 in north Bogota. The explosion blew out walls of two stories of an interior parking garage, raining rubble onto the street below. Jorge Velandia, who works at the club's mini-golf course, said the blast opened up a hole in one of the floors, and people tumbled through. Black smoke poured from the building, and flames licked out from upper windows. Media reports said that people were still trapped inside. Catalina Ortíz told Radionet she was driving 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," she said. Nearby buildings were also damaged in the explosion, authorities said.