Twenty-four homes in the Bogota neighborhood of Caracoli were evacuated on Thursday, due to the danger that ongoing heavy rains would cause more landslides in the area, reports Colombian media.
Emergency services were called to the neighborhood at midday on Thursday, when heavy rains caused a landslide that destroyed several houses and left a number of people trapped under the rubble.
A second landslide was triggered shortly after, trapping members of the army who had arrived at the site to help those who had been affected.
Rescue workers have since freed nine people from the rubble, eight of whom are soldiers and one a civilian. All nine people are injured and are seeking medical treatment.
One soldier remains missing, thought to be caught within the collapsed houses.
Authorities are unable to confirm whether there are more people who remain trapped by the landslides.
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.
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.
