Three kids and 11-month-old baby 'found alive in Amazon' weeks after plane crash

18 May 2023 , 07:51

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A Colombian army dog standing next to a pair of scissors found in the forest (Image: Colombian army/AFP via Getty Ima)

Three children and an 11-month-old baby have been found alive more than two weeks after a plane crash, it has been claimed.

An 11-month baby was among those rescued deep in the Colombian jungle - as well as children aged four, nine and 13, the president says.

However, there are conflicting reports on whether or not they have been found.

President Gustavo Petro said the discovery of the children followed "arduous searching" by the military.

He tweeted: "After arduous searching by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country."

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However, defence ministry sources told local media they have no confirmation they have been found.

Some reports say the children may have been found in a remote location by a boatman and were yet to be reached by officials, who said the president had perhaps been misinformed.

A small aircraft crashed in the Amazon over two weeks ago (Colombian Army/AFP via Getty Ima)

Photos show scissors, a hair band, a baby bottle and some half-eaten, discarded fruit (india.com)

Several users on social media hit out at the President calling him a liar.

Colombia's Institute of Family Welfare reported that the children had not yet been found.

The Cessna 206 plane issued a Mayday [emergency distress alert] due to engine failure in the early hours of May 1.

The small aircraft was flying between Araracuara in Amazonas province and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province when it disappeared in the early hours.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro (AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier in the week, soldiers found the wreckage of the aircraft after they spotted its nose buried in the jungle floor.

There they found the bodies of the pilot and two other adults.

The woman, Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of the four children.

The family are from the Huitoto people, an indigenous group in south-eastern Colombia and northern Peru.

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One of the children thought to have been found

A baby bottle was found (Colombian army/AFP via Getty Ima)

Preliminary information from the Colombian civil aviation authority believes that the children escaped the plane and set off into the rainforest to find help.

The Colombian military said efforts to find the children increased after they found a "shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches", indicating there were survivors.

Photos show scissors, a hair band, a baby bottle and some half-eaten, discarded fruit had been found.

The children found include four-year-old Tien Noriel, pictured here with his mum Ranoque Mucutuy who died in the crash

One helicopter played out a recorded message from their grandmother in the Huitoto language telling the children to stop moving through the rainforest, AFP news agency reports.

Colombian authorities have not yet given the cause of the plane crash but the country's disaster response body said the pilot had reported problems with the engine minutes before the plane disappeared from radar systems.

Rachel Hagan