Car bomb injures three people near police station in northern Mexico

[News_Editor]

Car bomb injures three people near police station in northern Mexico

2010-12-18 07:03:52 GMT+7 (ICT)

NUEVO LEON, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) -- A car bomb explosion injured three people in front of a police station in the municipality of Zuazua in Nuevo Leon state of northern Mexico on Friday, authorities said.

The explosion took place shortly after 1.00 p.m. local time and damaged a police motorcycle as well as three other vehicles which were parked nearby the police station. The blast also resulted in power outage in the nearby area.

The vehicle which carried out the attack was a white Nissan Tsuru that had been packed with explosives and parked near the police station. The explosion left a female police officer and two male civilians injured.

The two civilians, one of them identified as 48-year-old Pedro Benavides, sustained non-life threatening injuries and were transported to a local hospital for further treatment. Authorities said that no deaths were registered in the apparent drug-related attack.

Police forces secured the area after the blast and gathered evidence from the debris. It is believed that the blast was carried out by a drug cartel or an affiliated cell but authorities said the investigation will determine the nature of the explosion.

"At this moment it is too soon to determine the cause of the blast as we don't have the necessary elements to confirm it. However, after analyzing some details and the information gathered we may classify the incident," police spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said.

If confirmed as a drug-related attack, this would be the fourth car bomb attack in Mexico so far this year. In August, a car bomb exploded outside the Televisa television station in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas state, causing damage but no casualties.

And on July 16, four people were killed, including two policemen, after an explosives-laden car rammed two police vehicles in Ciudad Juarez, one of Mexico's most violent cities. The attack occurred after the arrest of Jesus Armando Acosta Guerrero, the alleged leader of the "La Linea" drug cartel.

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