A landslide buried several families and left at least 14 dead in southwestern Colombia

At least 14 people died and five others were injured this Sunday in a landslide caused by heavy rains in the municipality of Rosas, Cauca Department, in southwestern Colombia, official sources said. .

Sources from the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD) said that the landslide, which resulted in several houses, it's produced in a rural area called Fortachueloon the Panamericana Highway, the main highway in the southwest of the country that connects Colombia to Ecuador.

Authorities received an alert at 4:00 am local time (09:00 GMT) and arrived at the emergency site in Cauca, Nariño Department, to witness the tragedy.

According to UNGRD source, the inhabitants had already been warned that a landslide could occur in this area of ​​"vulnerability""But they ignored it because" people do not readily accept to withdraw from their places of life ".

In addition, the governor of Cauca, Óscar Campo, said on Twitter that there are "relief agencies and yellow mechanisms attending the landslide with deadly victims on the Pan-American Highway", in collaboration with the Colombian army , which contributes to the "work of rescue and debris removal".

The situation, explained the National Institute of Roads (Invias), also resulted in the complete closure of the Pan-American Highway at kilometer 82 of the road that connects the village of Mojarras to Popayan, the capital of the department of Cauca.

This is in addition to the one that took place on Saturday in Bogotá, where 58 families were affected by a landslide, of which 27 were asked to evacuate their homes and 12 did not use their homes to prevent a situation. major emergency.

(With information from EFE)