Four Indigenous Children Found Alive After Small Plane Crash in Colombia

(AFP, Bogota, 17th) Several people are still missing after a small plane crashed in Colombia more than two weeks ago. Searchers found four surviving indigenous children, including an 11-month-old baby, in the dense Amazon jungle, Colombian President Petra said today.

Gustavo Petro tweeted that the finding of four missing children after a “hard search” by the military was “a welcome event for the whole country”.

However, the military has not yet confirmed that the four missing children have been found.

Authorities dispatched more than 100 soldiers and sniffer dogs to search for the underage victims of the crash on the 1st; the accident killed three adults, including the pilot and the child’s mother.

In addition to an 11-month-old baby, the other three are 13, 9 and 4 years old. Rescuers believe the children had been wandering the jungle in the southern province of Caqueta since the crash.

Petra did not provide further details on where they were rescued or how they managed to survive alone in the jungle.

The armed forces said earlier that they had intensified a search operation after rescuers discovered “a temporary shelter of sticks and branches” and believed victims were still alive.

According to photos released by the military, scissors, shoes and hair ties could be seen falling among the branches on the jungle floor.

Searchers found a baby bottle and half-eaten fruit before finding a makeshift shelter made of jungle vegetation.

The small plane carrying seven people was originally scheduled to fly to San Jose del Guaviare (San Jose del Guaviare), one of the main cities in the Colombian Amazon rainforest, but unfortunately crashed on the way. The remains of the pilot and two adults were found, one of which was the mother of four surviving children. (Translator: Liu Wenyu / Verified manuscript: Chen Zhengyi)