BOGOTA, Oct 12 — Eleven people were killed when a landslide swept away part of a town in central Colombia’s coffee-growing region amid heavy rainfall, emergency officials reported yesterday.
Colombia’s UNGRD disaster risk management unit said seven females and four males were buried in the landslide that struck the Los Andes suburb of the town of Marquetalia.
Four other people were injured.
Searches for possible missing persons were suspended because of continued heavy rains, it said.
The town is located in the coffee-growing department of Caldas.
“Of the 11 people dead, four were minors, six aged between 20 and 50 years old and one was an older adult,” the UNGRD said in statement.
Marquetalia Mayor Luis Carlos Betancourt told journalists the mountain town had been hit by torrential rainfall late Wednesday.
The South American country is currently experiencing its second rainy season, with mountainous regions and part of the Caribbean coast on alert. — AFP
