Four children missing for more than two weeks after a plane crash in the Colombian jungle have been found alive, the country’s president said.
The Cessna 206 was carrying seven people between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it suffered engine failure on May 1.
The bodies of three adults, including the pilot, were found inside the plane.
A massive search involving more than 100 soldiers and sniffer dogs was launched for the four children, aged 13, nine, four, and 11 months.
“After arduous searching by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country,” President Gustavo Petro said on Twitter yesterday.
The children were said to have been rescued by members of the military, firefighters and civil aviation authority officials in the dense jungle of Colombia’s Caqueta province.
However defence ministry sources told local media they have no confirmation they have been found.
Preliminary information from the civil aviation authority, which coordinated the rescue efforts, suggested the children escaped the plane and set off into the rainforest to find help.
Rescuers, supported by search dogs, had previously found discarded fruit the children ate to survive, as well as improvised shelters made with jungle vegetation.
