BOGOTA – Three Colombian police officers were killed Tuesday by FARC guerrillas on a highway in the southern province of Caqueta, authorities said.

The attack, which took place between the towns of Cartagena del Chaira and El Paujil, was carried out by the 15th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), provincial police commander Col. Jose Elias Baquero told La F.M. radio.

The police convoy was transporting a person who had been arrested in Cartagena del Chaira when it was intercepted by guerrillas who killed the officers and took the prisoner with them, according to the initial investigation.

Police were dispatched to the zone to pursue the rebels.

Separately, one police officer was killed and five other people wounded Monday night when FARC fighters attacked a group of officers who were watching a soccer match in Buenos Aires, a town in the southwestern province of Cauca.

Officer Cristian Jimenez Guerrero was killed and his wife was seriously wounded along with four other officers.

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