Search for missing after landslide kills 14 in Colombia

Rescue teams with drones searched for survivors Tuesday after a landslide triggered by heavy rains left at least 14 people dead and about a dozen missing in central Colombia, authorities said.

Several homes were destroyed and a major trade artery blocked after torrential rains hit the Quetame municipality in Colombia’s Cundinamarca department late Monday.

Cundinamarca governor Nicolas Garcia said “14 lifeless bodies have been found” by lunchtime Tuesday, updating the earlier toll of eight.

Six rescued people were taken to hospital, he said in a video on Twitter.

Earlier, regional civil defense director Jorge Diaz told AFP the dead included one child.

Some 20 homes were razed in the deluge.

“It has not been possible to quantify the number of missing persons, but there is talk of 11… We are trying to identify the people who lived in the 20 destroyed houses,” said Diaz.

Quetame mayor Camilo Parrado said some households “lost two, three, even four family members.”

Mud was piled a meter high, up to two meters in some places, Parrado told El Dorado Radio, making for a “very complex” search and rescue operation.

“Relief agencies with drones” were involved in the search, said the mayor.

The army announced it was deploying about 80 soldiers to aid in the search effort.

Firefighters have evacuated dozens of survivors.