The children – aged 13, nine, four and 11 months – are said to have survived the May 1 plane crash in Colombia’s rainforest.
Three children and a baby were reportedly found alive more than two weeks after a plane carrying them crashed in the Colombian Amazon jungle.
Colombian authorities had deployed more than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs to search for the children traveling on a plane that crashed in the Amazon 17 days ago, killing three adults.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a tweet on Wednesday that the children were discovered after “vigorous searches” by the military. “A joy for the country,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Colombian Armed Forces said search efforts were intensified after rescuers came across a “shelter built in an improvised manner with sticks and branches” that led them to believe there were survivors.
However, there were no reports from the Colombian military confirming the discovery of the children.
From the hard workers of the nuestras Fuerzas Militares, hemos encontrado con vida a los 4 niños que habian desaparecido por el accidente aéreo in Guaviare. Una alegria para el país.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) May 17, 2023
(Translation: After heavy searches by our armed forces, we found alive the 4 children who had disappeared as a result of the plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country.)
Photos released by the armed forces showed a pair of scissors and a hair tie tucked between branches on the jungle floor. Earlier, a drinking bottle for a baby and a half-eaten piece of fruit had already been found.
Rescuers believe the four children — aged 13, nine, four and an 11-month-old baby — have been wandering through the jungle in the southern department of Caqueta since the crash on May 1.
On Monday and Tuesday, soldiers found the bodies of the pilot and two adults who had flown from a jungle location to San Jose del Guaviare, one of the main cities in the Colombian Amazon rainforest. The region has few roads and is also difficult to access by river, so transportation by small plane is common.
One of the dead passengers, Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of four children, who belong to the Huitoto ethnicity.
Three helicopters were used to assist in the search, one of which broadcast a recorded message from the children’s grandmother in the Huitoto language telling them to stop moving through the jungle.
Giant trees that can grow up to 40 meters high, wild animals and heavy rainfall made the search for “Operation Hope” difficult.
Authorities have not indicated what caused the plane crash.
The pilot had reported engine problems minutes before the plane disappeared from radars, the Colombian disaster response organization said.