At least 11 people have been injured in Medellin by a grenade which exploded accidentally in the city’s downtown commercial sector, police say.
A Metropolitan Police source in the city said the grenade was being carried by a man who planned to threaten a local shopkeeper.
The device fell from his hands and exploded before he reached the shop.
“It appears that the person carrying the grenade belongs to an urban militia associated with the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and the device exploded while he was looking for a shopkeeper he planned to attack for not paying extortion money,” the source said.
The people injured in the explosion, who included a homeless man, were taken to local medical centres for treatment but their conditions were stable, a police spokesman said.