At least six people, including two police officers, were killed and 12 civilians injured when a car bomb exploded on Wednesday in a grimy commercial district known for selling smuggled goods in Colombia's capital.

No group fighting in the country's four-decade guerrilla war immediately claimed responsibility for the blast -- the worst car bombing in Bogota since 36 people were killed and 160 wounded at the exclusive Nogal Club in February.

Two officers were killed after arriving in the San Andresito district to investigate a telephone call about a suspicious vehicle. About 110 pounds of explosives packed in an old jeep detonated as they arrived on a motorbike about 8 a.m. (9 a.m. EDT), also killing four civilians, police said.

Defense Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez warned of more attacks before Oct. 26 local elections that rebels have threatened to disrupt. President Alvaro Uribe, who took power last year promising to restore security, called an emergency security meeting. The government offered a $35,000 reward for information leading to arrests.

"We must be aware that because of the elections they are going to try to carry out terrorist attacks in several places across Colombia and we should all be alert," Ramirez said, adding it was too early to assess blame for Wednesday's bomb.

White sheets covered the victims' bodies near the buckled police motorbike on the glass-strewn street. Oranges had spilled from the handcart of a woman who sold juice. She was among the dead.

The jeep's mangled wreckage lay before a five-story center packed with shops selling household appliances and electronic goods. The explosion, occurring when shops were still closed, blew out windows and tore up shutters for a block around. The wounded, many of them people going to work, were taken away in ambulances with blood-stained bandages in faces and hands.

'THE LIGHTS WENT OFF'

"I was inside cleaning when I heard a loud explosion. The lights went off and we all came out to see what happened," said Blanca Mejia, a female janitor in a nearby store.

San Andresito, in southern Bogota, is notorious for selling contraband goods -- from liquor or tobacco to stereo systems. It is also a money-laundering center for criminal gangs.

Authorities blamed the Nogal bomb on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist rebel army known as FARC, which has long threatened to bring the country's mostly rural war to the cities. Common criminals also use car bombs to punish businesses that refuse to pay extortion.

Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus said recently that right-wing paramilitary outlaws were infiltrating Bogota's commercial areas. Paramilitaries, who human rights groups say work in collaboration with the military, do not usually target the police.

Colombia's war pits leftist rebel groups against right-wing militias and the military. The conflict, fueled by money from the drug trade, claims thousands of lives every year.

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