Bus buried in landslide in Colombia, 33 dead

The number of dead after a landslide in the department of Risaralda, in Colombia, which buried a bus, rose to 33 people, while rescue work continues and new bodies can be found, the country’s government said this Monday, 05. “We have already identified 33 dead people, including three minors. We rescued nine people alive, four of them are currently in critical condition and being treated,” said Colombian Executive spokesman Alfonso Prada, who is also Minister of the Interior, at a press conference. Earlier, the President Gustavo Petro sent “solidarity to the families of the victims” and guaranteed that the families “will have full monitoring by the National Government”. The landslide occurred on Sunday, when part of the mountain collapsed, taking with it a piece of the road that connects the departments of Risaralda and Chocó, in the La Cabaña sector, a rural area of ​​the municipality of Pueblo Rico. When it broke free, it buried an intercity bus leaving Cali for the municipalities of Condoto and Quibdó, in the department of Chocó (west). The director of the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD), Javier Pava, went to the site in the morning together with the governor of Risaralda, Víctor Manuel Tamayo, to respond to the tragedy in which a 7-year-old child was among the dead. years old. The landslide occurred, according to the UNGRD, due to the La Nina phenomenonpresent in Colombia since August 2020, and which “generated hypersaturation in materials with a high degree of metamorphism, also associated with steep slopes, which triggered surface mass movements”, that is, due to the rains that devastate the country and have wreaked havoc for weeks.

*With information from EFE