BOGOTA – Six people were killed Friday when leftist FARC rebels waylaid and burned a bus in the southwestern Colombian province of Nariño, a regional official told Efe.

“We know about four adults and two children who burned to death,” provincial government secretary Fabio Trujillo said, adding that the death toll could turn out to be higher.

The incident took place on the road linking Pasto, the provincial capital, and the Pacific port of Tumaco.

Citing witness accounts, Trujillo said the driver of the first bus to pass the spot where the rebels were laying in wait sped past despite the shots fired by the guerrillas.

When the driver of the next bus to come along did pull over, the rebels set the vehicle ablaze without first ensuring that all of the passengers were safely out, witnesses told authorities.

Trujillo said the attack was mounted by “guerrillas from the Mariscal Sucre column of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (known as the FARC) that operate in that region.”

Police and soldiers subsequently engaged the rebels who took part in Friday’s assault, Trujillo told Efe by telephone from Pasto.

Nariño, which borders Ecuador, is plagued by strife involving the FARC, Colombian security forces, right-wing militias and common criminals engaged in smuggling.

The FARC has battled a succession of Colombian governments since 1964. Once numbering as many as 20,000, the FARC is now thought to have around 9,000 combatants. EFE