Lost children in the jungle found alive

Colombia

Here the missing children in the Amazon are rescued  

(1:22 -THE CLIP)

Of:  

 

John Edgar, 

 

Anna Sjogren  

 

Published: Today 02.45  

 

Updated: Less than 30 min ago 

 

NEWS  

 

For 40 days they were lost in the Amazon.  

 

Now the children who disappeared in the jungle after a plane crash have been found alive. 

 

- It is a blessing for the whole country, says Colombian President Gustavo Petro. He announced the miracle rescue on Twitter during the night of Saturday.  

 

President Petro has also published a picture of rescue workers talking to the children.  

 

The children and the soldiers who found them in the jungle. Photo: AP 

 

- They were together. They are weak. We have to have doctors examine them. But they have been found and that makes me very happy, he told reporters after the announcement, according to Reuters.  

 

The children reportedly showed signs of dehydration and were bitten by insects and were briefly flown to a nearby town for treatment. They were later flown by air ambulance to the capital Bogotá and reunited with their father. 

 

Survived plane crash  

 

The children's mother, the pilot and another adult died when the Cessna plane they were traveling in crashed in dense jungle in Colombia on May 1.  

 

But the four siblings – aged 13, 9, 4 and 11 months – survived and ventured into the jungle alone in search of help. 

  

The wreckage of the Cessna C206 the family was traveling in. Photo: AP 

 

It took rescue forces two weeks to reach the plane, which had crashed into treetops after suffering engine trouble.  

 

Since then, a large rescue mission has been looking for the children. Over 100 soldiers from Colombia's special forces have been called into the search. Members from indigenous peoples also have help.  

 

And it has been painstaking and sometimes frustrating work. Visibility in the dense vegetation is poor and it rains 16 hours a day. 

 

- It's not like finding a needle in a haystack - it's like finding a small flea in a huge carpet that moves in unpredictable directions, General Pedro Sánchez, who has led the operation,

said a week ago.

  

 

At one point it was estimated that the forces were only 100 meters away from the children.  

 

In order to be able to contact and locate them, whistles have been hung up. A recorded message from the children's grandmother was broadcast from a helicopter in which she urged them to stop moving so that rescue workers would find them more easily. 

 

Traces of half-eaten fruit  

 

In pursuit of the children, the team believed they had crossed paths. Footprints have been found in the mud and half-eaten fruit has been found that they left behind.  

 

They have also found windbreaks that the children made from trees and leaves from the vegetation in the jungle. It is a miracle that the children were able to survive so long in the rainforest. 

 

But according to a relative, the 13-year-old, a girl, should have knowledge of it. 

 

- The big girl is very intelligent. She is very active, she is strong, relative Fidencio Valencia told AFP.  

 

However, General Sánchez said he was "one hundred percent sure" that the siblings would be found alive.  

 

And last night he was right.  

 

Planes and helicopters from the Colombian Air Force have participated in the rescue work.