Four children have been found alive more than two weeks after the plane they were travelling in crashed in a jungle in Colombia.
An 11-month-baby was among those rescued as well as children aged four, nine, and 13.
The plane – a Cessna 206 – was carrying seven people when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure in the early hours of 1 May.
President Gustavo Petro said the discovery followed ‘arduous searching’ by the military – and he described the news as ‘a joy for the country’.
Over 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs have formed a rescue party to search for the children.
Three adults, including the pilot, died as a result of the impact and their bodies were found inside the plane.
Preliminary information from the Colombian civil aviation authority, which coordinated the rescue efforts, suggests the children escaped the plane and set off into the rainforest to find help.
Four children, including 11-month-old baby found alive in jungle weeks after plane crash.
The search party has been following a ‘trail’ left by the children, but has not officially confirmed they have been found yet.
Rescuers, supported by sniffer dogs, had previously found discarded fruit the children ate to survive, as well as improvised shelters made with jungle vegetation.
Aeroplanes and helicopters from both Colombia’s army and air force participated in the rescue operations.
Avianline Charters, owner of the crashed aircraft, said that one of its pilots in the search area was told the children had been found and that they ‘were being transported by boat down river and that they were all alive’.
However, the company also admitted that ’there has been no official confirmation’ that the children were safely out of danger, and that thunderstorms in the area still posed a risk to them reaching safety.
Colombian authorities have not yet given the cause of the plane crash but the country’s disaster response body said the pilot had reported problems with the engine minutes before the plane disappeared from radar systems.
