At least four people are trapped beneath rubble in Colombian capital Bogota, after heavy rain caused landslides in the city’s Ciudad Bolivar neighborhood on Thursday, reports Colombian media.
According to initial reports, the first of the two landslides occurred at noon, burying a house with two known inhabitants. Emergency services arrived on the site moments before a second landslide, which caused four more houses to collapse and trapped three rescue workers.
Two of the three emergency service workers were rescued from the rubble, one of whom suffered the loss of three of his fingers.
Authorities are as yet unable to confirm the total number of people buried by the landslides, but at least two minors are thought to be amongst the victims.
More than 20,000 people have been left homeless around the country by the devastating weather brought by Colombia’s rainy season. Eight people are known to have lost their lives, while 88 municipalities across 22 departments have been affected by the extreme weather conditions.
The government of Bogota is encouraging public and private health care providers to strengthen their response capacity by taking measures to increase their number of beds, amount of physical spaces used to tend patients, amount of staff, and material needed to care for patients with respiratory illnesses.