Two people in a bus covered by a mudslide die after being trapped for 12 hours.
The number of people killed in this accident which occurred Wednesday night in La Minifalda, close to the town of Tona in the department of Santander, has now risen to six.
One of the trapped women, 22-yea-old Jenny Marcela Morales called her mother at 2AM Thursday. She begged for help and said that she was running out of air.
She said to her mother “Mom, I’m suffocating. Help me!”
Her mother Amilde Osma said “My daughter said that an injured person was next to her who had lost a lot of blood, and another girl was almost dead as she seemed to not be breathing.”
Blocked by another mudslide, Osma was unable to reach the site of the accident before her daughter died at approximately 10AM Thursday.
The bus driver and his son died together in the tragedy, alongside a policeman and one other passengers. Constant rain and difficult terrain impeded the rescue effort.
Emergency teams managed to dig through mud, stones and debris to reach the remaining five passengers, who were treated at a clinic in Bucaramanga, the capital of the department.
Tona’s mayor-elect, Francisco Gonzalez said, “The rescue teams have been able to uncover the back part of the bus in order to rescue the injured.”
The governor of Santander Horacio Serpa said “The situation is alarming because the mountain continues to experience mudslides. Right now there is heavy machinery there and we assure you that they are doing everything possible.”
The extremely heavy rains this winter have so far killed 134 Colombians and affected more than 500,000.