QUITO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 23 police officers were wounded by a car bomb that exploded after midnight Friday outside a police station in Ecuador.

The powerful blast occurred in the border town of San Lorenzo near Colombia. It also ripped a three-story police station and destroyed several adjacent homes.

According to the Interior Ministry, most of the injured were scratched by glass shattered by the explosion.

Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno condemned the attack on Twitter and instructed police to investigate the incident.

The president defined the attack as a "terrorist incident" linked with drug traffickers and declared a state of emergency in that region, vowing to take all "necessary measures" to combat gang crimes.

No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.