MOCOA – At least 112 people are believed to have been killed in a series of landslides in the city of Mocoa, Colombia.
Red Cross officials say the death toll from mudslides in southern Colobia has reached 93 with 174 people believed to be injured.
Homes were destroyed and people killed in their sleep after the local river overflowed into the city of 350,000 people, which sits near Colombia’s border with Ecuador.
Police commander Colonel Omar Bonilla told local radio station Caracol “At this time we have removed 93 bodies; we have adults, women and infants.”
President Juan Manuel Santos, who has travelled to Putumayo province, said troops had been deployed as part of a national emergency response.
Carlos Ivan Marquez, from Colombia’s national disaster agency, said the river flooded around midnight on Friday/Saturday and emergency services have been working with the country’s military to rescue survivors.
Colombia’s national disaster agency says emergency services are working with the country’s military to rescue survivors but it’s feared the death toll will rise further.
Officials said more than 120 people have been injured but Herman Granados, a surgeon at the local hospital, said he believed the injury toll would likely pass 300 and that doctors were running out of blood to help treat patients.
The mudslides happened yesterday, following days of torrential rain.
