NEWS: Colombia
LANDSLIDE
A landslide after heavy rain kills 14 people in Colombia.

At least 14 peo­ple have been killed and 35 injured after a land­slide buried sev­er­al homes in cen­tral Colom­bia, Colom­bi­a’s nation­al dis­as­ter man­age­ment agency said.

“Our updat­ed report indi­cates that 35 peo­ple were injured, 14 lost their lives and one remains miss­ing,” the UNGRD (Nation­al Dis­as­ter Risk Man­age­ment Unit) said on Twitter.

The ear­ly morn­ing land­slide in Dosque­bredas was pre­ced­ed by tor­ren­tial rains in the sur­round­ing cof­fee province of Risalda.

“A very loud noise scared us. We got out and saw a piece of moun­tain above the hous­es,” taxi dri­ver Dubernei Her­nan­dez, 42, told AFP.

“I went to this place and it was a dis­as­ter, with peo­ple trapped.”

Her­nan­dez said he helped dig up two bod­ies and a sur­vivor. He said at least five hous­es were buried by mud.

Author­i­ties evac­u­at­ed dozens of near­by homes, fear­ing fur­ther land­slides as the Otun Riv­er overflowed.

“We are cur­rent­ly man­ag­ing the entire evac­u­a­tion perime­ter because we are still detect­ing ground insta­bil­i­ty,” Alvaro Arias, gov­ern­ment sec­re­tary at Ris­ar­al­da, told Blu Radio.

Land­slides are com­mon in Colom­bia due to the moun­tain­ous ter­rain, fre­quent heavy rains, and poor or infor­mal house construction.

The coun­try’s most recent land­slide dis­as­ter occurred in the town of Mocoa in 2017, when more than 320 peo­ple were killed.