Suspected leftist guerrillas carrying assault rifles swept into a southern Colombia town Tuesday and attacked government offices, killing six town councilors and five others, authorities said. The guerrillas, believed to be members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, opened fire at a local council meeting in the town of Puerto Rico, 200 miles south of Bogota, said Oscar Galvis, an official with Colombia's secret police DAS.
Oscar Andres Nunez, director of the National Federation of Town Councils said several trucks full of FARC guerrillas arrived to the town's main square, where the town hall is located, and began shooting. He said the guerrillas also fired on and threw grenades at a police station located in the town center. Police identified the victims as six town council members, four police officers and a town official. Puerto Rico town councilman Julio Casas said he saw a pickup truck zoom into the plaza, then bullets started flying. "So I then escaped through a window, climbed a wall and jumped into a patio," Casas told The Associated Press by telephone. "I heard the shots and the screams of my colleagues." |