A car bomb attack targeting a police station in southwest Colombia killed two people, believed to be civilians, Wednesday in a region plagued by a guerrilla group in talks with the government.

The early-morning attack injured another two people and damaged a school, a hospital, homes and businesses nearby.

It came a day after Bogota and the Central General Staff (EMC) -- a dissident faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that disarmed in 2017 -- announced they would observe a ceasefire and hold peace talks next month.

"The terrorist attack against the Timba police station in Cauca, left two dead and two injured, and was carried out with a car bomb," police official Tito Castellanos wrote on social media.

Castellanos said the bomb exploded some 50 meters from the police station, after which police continued to be "harassed" by groups he did not identify.

No officers were injured or killed in the attack, according to the police.

Johanna Munoz (40), was preparing her daughter's breakfast when the explosion rocked their home.

"Some things fell on me," she said, describing how she ducked for cover before managing to escape with her daughter.

Like the house, a car parts shop the family ran from a small building next door was badly damaged.

Munoz said she saw two people, who she believed must have been passing by as the car blew up, laying outside on the ground afterward. "One was a teacher, who I think was already dead," she told AFP.

Without referring to the attack, President Gustavo Petro said on social media that EMC "actions" in the department of Cauca were a retaliation for military operations against drug crops in the area.

"Our objective remains... I have ordered an even bigger police and military presence in Cauca," he wrote.

Petro took office last August with a vow to bring "total peace" to a country battered by decades of civil conflict between the state and various left-wing guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.