Four Colombian children have been found alive in the Amazon more than two weeks after the plane they were in crashed into the dense jungle.

On 1 May, a Cessna 206 plane carrying seven people on a route between Araracuara in Amazonas province and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, issued a May Day alert due to engine failure, reported Reuters.

Three adults, including the pilot, died in the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane.

The four children, aged 13, nine and four, as well as an 11-month-old baby, survived the impact.

On Wednesday, president Gustavo Petro said in a statement on Twitter that the children had been found.

The children were rescued by members of the military, firefighters and civil aviation authority officials in the dense jungle of Colombia‘s Caqueta province.

“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,” Mr Petro said.

Civil aviation authorities, which coordinated the rescue efforts, believe the children escaped the plane after the crash and set off into the rainforest to find help.

Rescue teams, including search dogs, earlier found discarded fruit the children ate to survive and improvised shelters made with jungle vegetation.

Airplanes and helicopters from both Colombia’s army and air force participated in the rescue operations.

Authorities have not yet revealed what caused the plane crash, though the pilot had reported engine trouble before the plane disappeared from the radar, reported AFP.

Earlier this week, soldiers found the bodies of the pilot and two adults on the plane.

One of the deceased, identified as Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of the four children who are of Huitoto ethnicity.

Authorities said rescue efforts included three helicopters, including one which blasted out a recorded message from the children’s grandmother in the Huitoto language telling them to stop moving through the jungle.

Source - The Independent 
-Agencies