In an unfortunate incident, massive mudslides in the Colombian town of Mocoa killed as many as 254 people out of which 43 were children said President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday.
“Unfortunately, these are still preliminary figures,” tweeted President Santos, who travelled to the southern town Sunday to make sure that the relief operations are in place and the rescue efforts are being effectively taken.
The mudslides struck late Friday after days of torrential rain in the Amazon basin area town of 40,000.
“We don’t know how much more there will be, we are still searching,” he added.
“We will do everything possible to help them,” Santos said. “It breaks my heart.”
Expressing condolences to the families struck by the disaster, he added that he was declaring a state of emergency to mobilise rescue operations.
“The latest information we have is that there are 206 people confirmed dead, 202 injured, 220 missing, 17 neighbourhoods hit hard,” Colombian Red Cross chief Cesar Uruena as per AFP reports.
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