Colombian President Gustavo Petro claimed that four children belonging to an Indigenous community had been found alive two weeks after a plane carrying them crashed in the dense jungle of Colombia’s Caqueta province. However, confusion over the claims persisted as they were disputed by military sources.
According to the president, the military, fire fighters and civil aviation authority officials were continuously searching for the children before finally finding them alive. Petro, on Wednesday, tweeted, “After arduous searching by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country.”
However, the reports in local media claimed that there was no confirmation regarding the whereabouts of the children.
Total seven people were travelling in the Cessna 206 aircraft between Araracuara, situated in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, which released a mayday alert after its engine failed in the wee hours of May 1.
Earlier it was believed that the pilot along with three adults lost their lives in the crash and their bodies remained in the plane, but four children, a 13, a four and a nine-year-old and one 11-month-old baby survived.
The civil aviation authority released initial information which tells that the children went out of the crashed plane into the forest to search for some way out. The authority was also part of the rescue efforts. Colombian army and airforce, both have been participating in the rescue operations providing their airplanes and helicopters.
Rescuers had previously discovered abandoned fruit that the kids had eaten for survival as well as makeshift shelters fashioned of wild vegetation with the help of search dogs.
