Grenade blast during Colombia football celebration kills 1

BOGOTA - One person was killed and 29 others wounded when a man accidentally set off a grenade in downtown Medellin, the capital of the northwestern province of Antioquia, as people were celebrating Colombia’s World Cup qualifying win over Ecuador.

Initial reports said the blast occurred at 7.40 p.m. Saturday at San Antonio Park, where the man pulled the pin on the grenade as fans celebrated the Colombian squad’s 2-0 win over Ecuador at Medellin’s Atanasio Girardot Stadium and watched the game between Argentina and Brazil.

Six of the injured were treated at the scene and the rest were taken to hospitals in Medellin, said the city’s emergency management chief Camilo Zapata.

Four seriously injured people were taken to one of the city’s university hospitals, but one of them, identified as teacher Harold Moreno, died.

The blast occurred when a man improperly handled a grenade at a bar that draws large crowds on the weekends, setting it off when about 250 people were inside the establishment, said Medellin Metropolitan Police chief Col. Luis Eduardo Martinez.

The incident was not a guerrilla attack, Medellin Mayor Alonso Salazar said, adding that it was a shame that “a beautiful (day) like the one the city of Medellin was living through had ended with such a painful situation”.

The police bomb squad cordoned off San Antonio Park to gather evidence for the investigation into the blast that killed the teacher.

–EFE