Nine die in blast

An explosion believed to be a rebel attack killed nine people, including seven children, injured 24 others and levelled a two-storey apartment building and a mini-mart in northwestern Colombia, police said today,

The blast shook the town of Chigorodo at midday on Sunday, a police officer said by telephone from the village near the Panamanian border.

‘‘We believe it was a FARC attack,’’ the police officer said, referring to the country’s main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Several policemen lived in the apartment building, including patrolman Juan Camilo Puerta Tapias, who died in the blast along with his wife and young daughter, police said.

Witnesses described a thunderous explosion that left a horrifying scene.

Authorities had initially thought the blast may have been caused by the accidental explosion of a cooking-gas canister but discarded the theory after two of the large canisters were found intact in the ruins of the building, the newspaper El Colombiano said.

On May 2, 119 civilians were killed in the Uraba village of Bojaya when FARC rebels fired a mortar into a church where the villagers had been seeking shelter.