Bogotá.- The vice president of Colombia, France Marquezreported that they are 33 people died for two landslides of land that occurred on Friday on a highway near El Carmen de Atrato, in the department of crashed (west).
“I regret the death of 33 people in this tragedy, mostly girls and boys, according to preliminary reports from the territory,” Márquez said on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
The vice president assured that there are still people trapped under the collapse in the via Quibdó-Medellín and that search and rescue actions by relief agencies and more continue.
The landslide occurred on Friday afternoon and buried several vehicles that were stopped, apparently due to an avalanche that previously blocked the highway between Medellín and Quibdó, the capital of Chocó.
Buried by mountain
In a video recorded by witnesses, a line of vehicles is seen stopped on the road, waiting for the passage to open. Suddenly the mountain It collapses, burying them with their occupants.
There were also, according to witnesses cited by local media, fifty people who were taking shelter from the rain in a house when the avalanche hit.
The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (Ungrd) reported 35 people injured who have been transferred to care centers.
Rescue continues
Rescue operations continue and information is still partial. It is a road that, although it connects Medellín with Quibdó, the capital of the Chocó jungle, is remote and the signal is intermittent.
The Army, which has deployed 30 rescue soldiers, is using drone overflights “to identify possible sites where trapped personnel may be found” and also dogs to locate victims.
The governor of crashed, Nubia Carolina Córdoba, reported that there are bodies that have been transferred to Medellín and others are in the Quibdó Immediate Reaction Unit, so that they can come and identify them. EFE
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