Bogot, Colombia: Four Indigenous children, including an 11-month-old baby, have been found alive in the dense Colombian Amazon after a plane crash more than two weeks ago, President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday, declaring “joy for the country.”
The Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF) said the May 1 crash, which claimed the lives of three adults, took place on the border between Caquetá and Guaviare in the southern central region of the country, about 250 miles south of the country’s capital of Bogota.
More than 100 soldiers had been deployed with sniffer dogs to search for the minors who were traveling in an airplane that crashed on May 1, leaving three adults including the pilot and the children’s mother dead.
The siblings, boys aged eleven months, four and nine and their 13-year-old sister survived by eating jungle fruits before their rescue yesterday, dailymail reported. Colombian authorities believe the four missing children were wandering through the rainforest since the plane went down in the southern region.
The armed forces had earlier said their 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 military, scissors, shoes, and hair ties could be seen among branches on the jungle floor.
A baby’s drinking bottle and half-eaten pieces of fruit had been spotted before the shelter’s discovery.
The agency said Wednesday the four boys and girls had “been found alive and that they are also in good health,” and their priority is now reuniting the children with their families.
