Four children lost in Colombian jungle found alive after missing for 40 days

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday that authorities had found four children alive who had survived a small plane crash 40 days ago Subject of an intensive search in the Amazon jungle that kept the country in suspense.

The children were alone when searchers found them and are now receiving medical attention, Petro told reporters after returning to Bogota from Cuba, where he signed a ceasefire agreement with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group.

Petro said the children are an “example of survival” and predicted their saga “will stay in history”.

The crash occurred in the early morning hours of May 1 when the single-engine Cessna propeller plane with six passengers and one pilot declared a state of emergency due to engine failure. The light aircraft soon disappeared from radar and a frantic search for survivors began.

The bodies of three adults, including the pilot and the children’s mother, were found days later, but the children were not on the plane. The discovery of small footprints a few kilometers from the crash on June 1 raised hopes of finding the children, aged 13, 9, 4 and 11 months, alive.

More than 100 members of the Colombian special forces and more than 70 indigenous people from the region participated in the search through the pristine jungle in the Colombian Amazon. Some soldiers covered nearly 1,600 miles, or nearly the distance from Lisbon to Paris, officials said.