Four children from an Indigenous community in Colombia were found alive in the country’s south on Friday more than five weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed in thick jungle, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said.
Petro said the children are now receiving medical attention and will travel to Bogota or back home to Villavicencio once doctors are sure they are fit physically and mentally.
The children were rescued by the military with help from local indigenous communities near the border between Colombia’s Caqueta and Guaviare provinces, close to where the small plane had crashed.
Photos shared by Colombia’s military showed a group of soldiers with the four children in the middle of the jungle.
The plane – a Cessna 206 – was carrying seven people on a route between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure in the early hours of May 1.
Three adults, including the pilot, died as a result of the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane. The four children, aged 13, 9, and 4, as well as a now 12-month-old baby, survived the impact.
Petro initially reported that children had been found on May 17 in a message on Twitter but later deleted the post, saying the information was unconfirmed.
Rescuers, supported by search dogs, had previously found discarded fruit the children ate to survive, as well as improvised shelters made with jungle vegetation.
