The Colombian army arrested an intoxicated soldier after he threw a grenade at a public establishment, killing one person and injuring seven, newspaper El Espectador reported Monday.
According to the army’s 8th division commander General Ricardo Diaz Torres, the officer, identified as Milton Serna Gil, who was part of the 43rd Motorized Infantry Battalion in the municipality of Cumaribo in northeast Colombia’s Vichada department, was under the effects of alcohol when he threw the deadly weapon.
“Some people were chatting in a building when an argument took place, and this person left the battalion’s facilities and came back at 4AM with a grenade that he had taken from his personal allotment, and activated the grenade,” said Diaz Torres.
The soldier reportedly confessed to the act upon arrest, and will now have to respond before personnel from the Prosecutor General’s Office.
Four of the injured personnel were evacuated to the city of Villavicencio in an army plane, while the three less severely injured victims are being treated in a hospital in Cumaribo.