At least 18 people died while 35 others were injured in the Choco Department in western Colombia as a result of landslides, El Tiempo newspaper reported on Saturday.
Several landslides took place on the road linking the city of Quibdo to the capital of Colombia’s mountainous Antioquia province, Medellin, the local paper said. The natural disaster destroyed a residential building near the road, trapping around 50 people under the rubble.
In the same incident, 25 people were injured and transferred to a hospital in the municipality of El Carmen de Atrato, in the Choco Department, according to El Tiempo.
Authorities have launched search and rescue operations at the scene of the accident.
RECURRING LANDSLIDES
Landslides are a recurring theme in this region, as at least 13 people died as a result of a landslide that hit a miners’ camp in the northwestern Colombian department of Antioquia earlier in April 2022.
The landslide hit the camp of the Canadian mining company Fenix Oro Gold. One of the miners told C
olombian media that the victims were employees of the company. The disaster was caused by heavy rains.
Another 14 were killed in a mudslidecaused by heavy rain, on a mountain in central-western Risaralda Province, burying several homes in the impoverished municipality of Dosquebradas.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon