KABUL: (Middle East Press) At least 66 people have been killed after a heavy rain and stormy weather have caused a massive landslide in northwest Colombia.
Officials said dozens more were injured as the disaster hit the town of Salgar in Colombia’s northwest mountains, close to the Andes at around 3am on Monday morning.
Emergency teams have already started search and rescue operations in villages located southwest of the provincial capital of Medellin, although reports showed there were difficulties for rescuers reaching the affected areas.
Regional police commander Jose Angel Mendoza said: “The earth slid into the course of the La Liboriana ravine, then the dammed water caused an avalanche which destroyed everything in its path.”
“We have 48 bodies in the morgue – 27 injured people have been attended to and the search for various missing people continues,” Carlos Ivan Marquez, the director of the national disaster unit, told journalists.
Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were displaced in the last series of landslides and floods which hit Colombia in 2011 and 2012.
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