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Eight dead as police helicopter shot down in Colombia

By AAP Newswire

Aug 22, 2025

Colombia ambulance — A police helicopter has been shot down in Colombia, leaving at least eight people dead. -EPA

At least eight police officers have died and eight others injured after a police helicopter was shot down in northern Colombia.

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The attack on Thursday near the town of Amalfi in the department of Antioquia is believed to have been carried out by a splinter group of the former left-wing guerrilla organisation FARC.

According to Governor Andrés Julián Rendón, splinter groups of FARC and the Gulf Cartel criminal syndicate are active in the region.

Security forces had previously seized 1.5 tonnes of cocaine belonging to the Gulf Cartel.

According to a report in the El Tiempo newspaper, two helicopters had dropped off police officers in the area to destroy coca fields.

They returned after reports of an attack on the police officers, at which point one of the helicopters was struck by a drone and crashed.

Rendón published a video on the news platform X in which a black column of smoke can be seen above the crash site.

Colombia is the largest cocaine producing country in the world.

Although the security situation has improved following the peace agreement between the government and FARC signed in 2016, parts of the country are still controlled by illegal groups.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press