Having already found the remains of more than 300 victims in Mocoa, rescue workers are still looking for eight missing foreigners in the disaster-struck southern Colombia town.
Among the missing foreigners who are feared to have died in the deadly avalanche are possibly three Spaniards, one German and one Ecuadorean, reported Spanish news agency EFE.
According to the Red Cross, “we are looking for approximately eight foreigners, including an Ecuadorean, a German and a Spaniard,” the Spanish news agency reported.
The Spanish embassy confirmed a total of thee Spaniards, residents of Mocoa, have disappeared following the disaster.
Two Italians and one Israeli were killed in the avalanche that destroy much of the capital of the southern Putumayo province, according to the Foreign Ministry.
The National Disaster Unit is still looking for some 80 missing persons four days after Sunday’s disaster.
According to the Unit, 218 bodies have been identified and returned to their families, who have embarked on a procession of funerals in the devastated town.
Mocoa begins its procession of funerals as Colombia mourns
Meanwhile in Bogota, the Prosecutor General’s Office has begun criminal investigations to establish whether local authorities had been negligent in preventing a disaster.
Both the regional environmental authority and the national meteorological institute had warned some nine months in advance that the rainy season, combined with weather phenomenon “La Niña,” could cause flash floods and mudslides in the town located along the Mocoa River.
Prosecution to hear south Colombia authorities over Mocoa disaster
The disaster is the deadliest to have hit Colombia in decades, leaving most the country in mourning.