World

Hundreds missing as Colombia mudslide kills more than 250

Soldiers rescue a child in Mocoa, Colombia, Saturday, April 1 PICTURE: Colombian Army Photo via AP
Soldiers rescue a child in Mocoa, Colombia, Saturday, April 1 PICTURE: Colombian Army Photo via AP Soldiers rescue a child in Mocoa, Colombia, Saturday, April 1 PICTURE: Colombian Army Photo via AP

A SEARCH for the missing has resumed in Colombia after surging rivers sent an avalanche of floodwaters, mud and debris through a small city, killing at least 200 people.

People pried through piles of rocks and wooden planks that entombed homes in Mocoa.

Streets were covered in thick sand, mud and tree limbs from the rivers and rainforest that surround the city.

There was little drinking water and no power, which forced authorities to suspend the search-and-rescue effort during the night.

The National Disaster Agency said the death toll was at 200, with another 200 injured, but authorities conceded it could easily go higher because many people were still unaccounted for, dozens were airlifted to hospitals in other cities and others were in critical condition.

Bodies were being placed in a temporary morgue where three teams of medical examiners were working around the clock to swiftly identify the remains.

Authorities and residents in the city tucked between mountains along Colombia's southern border spent Saturday tending to victims, trying to find homes on streets reduced to masses of rubble and engaged in a desperate search to locate loved ones who disappeared in the dark of night.

Eduardo Vargas, 29, was asleep with his wife and seven-month-old baby when he was awoken by the sound of neighbours banging on his door.

He quickly grabbed his family and fled up a small mountain amid cries of people in panic.

Mr Vargas and his family huddled with about two dozen other residents as rocks, trees and wooden planks ripped through below.

They waited there until daylight, when members of the military helped them down.

When he reached the site of his home on Saturday, nothing his family left behind remained.

President Juan Manuel Santos travelled to Mocoa and declared the city a disaster zone on Saturday.

The Air Force transported 19 patients to a city farther north and said 20 more would be evacuated soon.

Medicine and surgical supplies were being sent to the city as the area's regional hospital struggled to cope with the magnitude of the crisis.

Mr Santos blamed climate change for triggering the avalanche, saying the accumulated rainfall in one night was almost half the amount Mocoa normally receives in the entire month of March.

With the rainy season in much of Colombia just beginning, he said local and national authorities need to redouble their efforts to prevent a similar tragedy.

The tragedy drew international attention, with Pope Francis mentioning the catastrophe during his Angelus blessing on Sunday on a visit to the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna, which was struck by a pair of deadly earthquakes five years ago.