Four Colombian children - aged 13, 9, 4 and a baby now 12 months old - were rescued by the army in the Amazon rainforest, near the border between Caqueta and Guaviare provinces.
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Four children have been found alive in the Amazon rainforest 40 days after a plane crash. Photo: Twitter Colombian President |
Four children from an indigenous community in Colombia were found alive in the south of the country on June 9, more than five weeks after a plane carrying them crashed in the jungle, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced.
The four siblings - aged 13, 9, 4 and a 12-month-old baby - were rescued by the military near the border between Colombia's Caqueta and Guaviare provinces - close to where the small plane crashed.
The plane - a Cessna 206 - was carrying seven people on a journey between Araracuara in Amazonas province and the city of San Jose del Guaviare in Guaviare province when its engine failed on May 1.
Three adults - including the pilot and the children's mother Magdalena Mucutuy - died in the plane crash and their bodies were found at the scene.
The four siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and the baby, who was 11 months old at the time of the accident, survived the tragedy.
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Four Colombian children who survived in the Amazon rainforest were found and brought to the capital Bogota for health checks. Photo: Colombian Army |
Narcizo Mucutuy, the grandfather of three girls and one boy, was happy to hear that the children had been rescued, according to Reuters. "As the grandfather of the children who went missing in the Yari forest, I am very happy at this moment," he said.
Photos shared by the Colombian army show a group of soldiers, volunteers and four children in the middle of the jungle.
"Joy for the whole country! Four children lost in the Colombian jungle have survived" - President Petro shared via Twitter.
“The forest saved them. They are children of the forest and now they are also children of Colombia,” Mr. Petro added.
Mr. Petro initially reported that four children were found on May 17 on Twitter but later deleted the post, saying the information had not been confirmed.
"They are together and still weak, let the doctors check them. They found the children, that makes me very happy," Mr. Petro told reporters on June 9.
The Colombian leader added that the children had been defending themselves alone in the jungle.
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Children lost for 40 days in the Amazon rainforest in the Huitoto indigenous community. Screenshot |
Children who survived more than five weeks in the Amazon rainforest have been brought to the capital Bogota to be examined by doctors, Sky News reported.
The footage shows a helicopter using ropes to pull four children up because the helicopter could not land in the dense rainforest.
The Colombian army also tweeted photos showing a group of soldiers and volunteers posing with children wrapped in thermal blankets. In another photo, a soldier holds a bottle of water to the youngest baby.
According to the BBC, a large-scale search began in May. Rescuers with search dogs had previously found fruit that the four children had eaten to survive.
Rescuers also found items left behind by the children, including their drinking bottles, scissors, hair ties and a makeshift shelter made from forest vegetation.
Small footprints were also found, leading search teams to believe the children were still alive in the rainforest, which is home to jaguars, snakes and other predators.
The missing children in the Amazon rainforest belong to the Huitoto indigenous community, and members of the community hope that knowledge of fruits and survival skills in the jungle will give them a better chance of survival.
Colombian army and air force planes and helicopters joined the rescue operation. Indigenous people also joined the search and the helicopter broadcast a recorded message from the children's grandmother in the Huitoto language urging the four lost children to stop moving so they could be located more easily.
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