Search For Missing After Landslide Kills 8 In Colombia

Rescue teams with drones searched for survivors Tuesday after a landslide triggered by heavy rains left at least eight people dead and about a dozen missing in central Colombia, authorities said

Bogot , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jul, 2023 ) :Rescue teams with drones searched for survivors Tuesday after a landslide triggered by heavy rains left at least eight people dead and about a dozen missing in central Colombia, authorities said.

Several homes were destroyed and a major trade artery blocked by mud after torrential rains hit the Quetame municipality in Colombia's Cundinamarca department late Monday.

The dead included one child, civil defense director Jorge Diaz told AFP.

Six people were injured in the deluge and 20 homes razed, he said.

"It has not been possible to quantify the number of missing persons, but there is talk of 11... We are trying to identify the people who lived in the 20 destroyed houses," said Diaz.

Quetame mayor Camilo Parrado said some households "lost two, three, even four family members." Mud was piled a meter high, up to two meters in some places, he told El Dorado Radio, making for a "very complex" search and rescue operation.

"Relief agencies with drones are resuming the search," said the mayor.

Firefighters have evacuated dozens of survivors, six of whom were taken to hospital.

The Cundinamarca fire department put the estimated number of missing people at 20.

Diaz said the landslide buried part of a road linking Bogota to the southeast of the country -- one of the country's main freight routes.

It happened near a toll post some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the capital, and destroyed a bridge.

Large rocks and mud now obstruct the road between Bogota and Villavicencio, an AFP reporter observed, with several trucks and motorcycles trapped in mud.

On Twitter, President Gustavo Petro offered his condolences to the families of victims and said the disaster demonstrated the need to bolster infrastructure around at-risk areas.

The rainy season in Colombia started in June and usually lasts until November.