Desperate search in Colombia for missing after landslide

World Today

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos is blaming climate change for deadly flooding in his country. Rescue crews are still searching for survivors in the southern city of Mocoa.

More than 270 are confirmed dead, and relatives are lining up at the morgue to look for loved ones.

CGTN’s Toby Muse was there. Here’s his report.

Days after flooding and avalanches devastated this town, people continue searching for the disappeared. The volunteers of Civilian Defense start every day hoping they’ll find someone still alive, trapped in the wreckage.

“Our first job is to rescue people and give them a second chance of life,” Daniel Viuche, civil defense coordinator, said. But they know that time is running out to find any lucky enough to have survived this catastrophe. That’s if it hasn’t run out already.

Today, the Civil Defense is collecting dead bodies still littered around this town. Neighbors have reported an awful smell coming from the river bank, a good indication that a body may be here. They can’t find anything; a false alarm.

The combination of flooding, avalanche and a wave of mud that swept through the town, has made saving any survivors a remote chance.