The Centro Andino in the northern Chapinero district is one of the Colombian capital's most popular shopping centers and is close to global restaurants, bars.
At least three women, one of them a 23-year-old French citizen, were killed after being seriously injured in an explosive device attack at a shopping mall in northern Bogota, Colombian capital sources said Monday.
The bomb ripped through the exclusive Centro Comercial Andino mall at about 5 p.m. Saturday as it was crowded with Fathers' Day shoppers.
Police said the device was placed in a toilet bowl in the second-floor restroom, according to Al-Jazeera.
Eleven other people were killed at the Andino shopping center in the Zona Rosa area Saturday afternoon, authorities said.
"Those who want to rain on the peace parade will not succeed", said Santos, who won a Nobel Peace Prize previous year for sealing an accord with FARC leaders.
The 25-year-old French woman who died, Julie Huynh, had been in Bogota since February volunteering at a school in a poor neighborhood as part of a master's program in worldwide humanitarian aid.
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Bogota Mayor Enrique Penalosa has condemned the attack, calling it a "cowardly terrorist attack".
The ELN, a Marxist group now negotiating peace with the government, denied any involvement in a tweet and condemned the attack against civilians.
The last active rebel force, the National Liberation Army (ELN), meanwhile, has started talks with the government, though confrontations with state forces have been continuing.
The Colombian leader pledged compensations for the victims' families. This attack has been termed as the attempt to break the peace process.
Bomb attacks in South America have not ceased even after Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's biggest guerrilla group, signed a peace treaty in 2016, which gave people high hopes that peace will finally be restored.
President Juan Manuel Santos has ordered the police to direct the investigation into the attack, and expressed his "solidarity with the victims". We won't let our guard down but we mustn't panic.
Still, the Andino shopping center would seem a hard target because all vehicles entering the parking garage are screened by bomb-sniffing dogs and security guards are present throughout the mall.
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