The Americas

2 police wounded by bomb in car in El Salvador's capital

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Police review the charred remains of a car that exploded as authorities were responding to a report of a vehicle with a corpse inside, in the San Bartolo neighborhood of Soyapango, El Salvador, Monday, April 29, 2019. Two police officers were injured in the explosion. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Police review the charred remains of a car that exploded as authorities responded to a report of a vehicle with a corpse inside, in the San Bartolo neighborhood of Soyapango, El Salvador, Monday, April 29, 2019. Two police officers were injured in the explosion. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Officials in El Salvador say a street gang put a fake body in an abandoned car to lure police officers into a car-bomb attack, the latest in a round of killings of police and soldiers.

Authorities say suspected gang members wrapped a mannequin in blankets inside a car and then detonated explosives in the vehicle when police arrived to investigate what they thought was a body. The blast Monday at a soccer field on the outskirts of the capital wounded two police officers.

The attack comes after suspect gang members killed two police and three soldiers over the weekend. All were off-duty when they were attacked.

National police director Howard Cotto says the attacks were planned and carried out by the Mara Salvatrucha gang, known as MS13.