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A police officer was killed and 30 other people were injured in a blast in Colombia's capital on Sunday before a bullfighting event where protests had been expected, authorities and local media reported.

Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa described the explosion as a "criminal terrorist attack" aimed at police and vowed to capture those behind it, although no additional details were immediately provided.

Twenty-six of the wounded were officers, the district secretary for Security, Coexistence and Justice said in a statement. In a Twitter post from a hospital, Peñalosa said four of them lost an eye.

Authorities search for evidence Sunday at the site of an explosion in Bogota, Colombia. Arwa Gunja

The blast comes amid ongoing — and sometimes violent — protests over bullfighting in Bogotá. The sport was outlawed in 2012, but three years later the country's highest court ended the ban, calling bullfighting a cultural heritage.

The sport resumed last month to large protests and a police response that included pepper spray and tear gas, The Guardian reported.

A witness told NBC News that Sunday's blast, in the city's Macarena neighborhood, was strong enough to shatter glass on the 17th floor of a building across the street.