BOGOTA (Reuters) – At least eight people were killed and nine wounded, including two policemen, in a drive-by shooting outside a nightclub in northwest Colombia, police and local media said yesterday.
“We have reports that two people that arrived precisely when the others were leaving began indiscriminately firing,” Police Colonel Edgar Munoz told journalists.
Police said two officers were hurt in the attack, which occurred in Envigado municipality of Antioquia state, some 250 km (155 miles) from Bogota.
Despite a fall in violence since President Alvaro Uribe launched a US-backed offensive against drug-trafficking rebels and cocaine barons, shootings, bombings and other mayhem are still common in remote, rural areas of the Andean nation.
Colombia is the world’s top cocaine producer and rebels, new armed groups and drug lords routinely clash over smuggling routes and territory.
Coca cultivating area was down 18 per cent in 2008 from the previous year, according to the latest UN drug report, which estimated output at 430 tonnes versus 600 tonnes in 2007.
