Two young children were killed by a landslide that occurred Monday night in north Colombia’s Bolivar department, while their mother and various others remain missing.
The three people occupied one of four residences that were buried under the avalanche of earth that occurred in the Bellavista neighborhood of the department’s Santa Rosa Sur municipality.
The children were located shortly after the occurrence, said the municipality’s mayor, but the mother had not been found, and search efforts were temporarily suspended for the night, though the official assured that they would resume first thing in the morning.
Area officials blamed the season’s intense rains. “Strong rains in the area generated a landslide, two minors of age were recovered, the mother of the two children has disappeared and there is another family that we haven’t been able to get information about,” said the director of Bolivar’s disaster prevention office, according to RCN Radio.
The prolonged severe weather in Colombia, most recently provoked by the La Niña phenomenon, has affected millions of the country’s residents since last year, and created nearly 500,000 victims since January 2011.