Four Missing Children Found Alive in Colombian Amazon Plane Crash

Four Indigenous children missing for more than two weeks after a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon have been found alive, President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday, declaring “joy for the country.”

Petro shared the news on Twitter, saying the children were discovered after “arduous search efforts” by the military.

Authorities had deployed more than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs to search for the minors who were traveling in an airplane that crashed in the Amazon on May 1, killing three adults.

Rescuers believe the four children, aged 13, 9, 4 and an 11-month-old baby, have been wandering through the jungle in the southern Caqueta department since the crash.

Earlier Wednesday, the armed forces said that search efforts intensified after rescuers came across a “shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches,” leading them to believe there were survivors.

In photographs released by the armed forces, scissors and a hair tie could be seen among branches on the jungle floor.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)