Four children from an indigenous community in Colombia have been found alive in the south of the country more than two weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed in thick jungle, President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday.
The children were rescued by military, firefighters and civil aviation officials from the dense jungle in Colombia’s Caqueta province.
The plane, a Cessna 206, was carrying seven people between Araracuara, in the province of Amazonas, and San Jose del Guaviare, a town in the province of Guaviare, when it issued a distress alert due to a breakdown engine in the early hours of May 1.
“After an arduous search by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country,” Petro said in a post on Twitter.
Three adults killed in crash
Three adults, including the pilot, died as a result of the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane. All four children, aged 13, 9 and 4, and an 11-month-old baby survived the impact.
Preliminary information from the Civil Aviation Authority, which coordinated the rescue efforts, suggests the children escaped the plane and headed into the rainforest to find help.
Rescuers, backed by search dogs, had previously found discarded fruit that children had eaten to survive, as well as makeshift shelters made of jungle vegetation.
Planes and helicopters from the Colombian army and air force took part in the rescue operations