Bomb strikes Colombian Police Academy, kills 10 and injures 65

No group has claimed responsibility, but public prosecutor Nestor Humberto Martinez named suspect Jose Aldemar Rojas Rodriguez as the "material author of this abominable crime".

Martinez, without giving much details about the explosion, said Rojas Rodriguez entered the school compound at 9:30 am (14:30 GMT) driving a grey 1993 Nissan Patrol truck.

Martinez further said the truck had undergone an inspection in July.

About the inspection, Martinez said it was held in the Arauco department on the border with Venezuela, a traditional stronghold of ELN Marxist guerrillas.

The defense ministry said an investigation had been opened "to find those responsible for this terrorist act."

Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said one of the dead was an Ecuadorean cadet, while a second suffered light injuries.

"The brutal act of terrorism in Bogota took the life of a compatriot. My sincerest thoughts go to the family, friends, and companions of Erika Chico," Moreno said on Twitter.

Fanny Contreras, the Colombian armed forces' health inspector, told local radio that the truck "entered the school compound suddenly, almost hitting the police and then there was the explosion".

Carol Oviedo said her brother Jonathan, a cadet, told her on the phone he had been injured before the connection was cut.

"In two years since he joined the police, he's never had to face a situation like this," she said.

Like other families, Oviedo was also lingering in the vicinity of the academy hoping to hear some news.

Owner of a confectionery-store near the school said the sight after bomb blast was horrible, adding it seemed like the end of the world.

Authorities sealed off the area to the press and increased security service patrols in the south of the city.

Right-wing Duque has peddled a tough line against Marxist rebels and drug traffickers in the largest cocaine producer in the world.

Peace talks with ELN guerrillas, who in the past have claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on police, stalled before Duque replaced Juan Manuel Santos as president in August last year, and have not been restarted.

Duque has made several demands, including the release of all hostages, as prerequisites to kick-starting the peace process, but the ELN has dismissed those as unacceptable.

After the 2016 peace accord signed by Santos and FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People's Army) guerrillas turned the former rebels into a political party, the ELN is considered the last active rebel group in a country that has suffered more than half a century of conflict.

That cycle of violence has also involved paramilitaries, drug traffickers and other Marxist rebels, including FARC dissidents.

A year ago, six police died and 40 were injured in an attack on a police station in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla that was claimed by the ELN.

In February 2017, the ELN claimed responsibility for an attack on a police patrol in the Macarena neighborhood of Bogota that left one officer dead and several seriously wounded.