Children who survived plane crash found after six weeks lost in jungle

Four children have been found alive in the south of Colombia more than five weeks after the plane they were travelling in crashed in thick jungle.

The children were rescued by the military near the border between Colombia’s Caqueta and Guaviare provinces, close to where the wreckage of the Cessna 206 was found.

“A joy for the whole country! The four children who were lost ... in the Colombian jungle appeared alive,” Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said on Twitter.

The plane was carrying seven people on a route between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure in the early hours of May 1.

Three adults, including the pilot, died as a result of the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane. The four children, aged 13, 9 and 4, as well as an 11-month-old baby, survived the impact.

Preliminary information from the civil aviation authority, which coordinated the rescue efforts, suggests the children escaped the plane and set off into the rainforest to find help.

About 200 people had been involved in the search for the missing children, including members of local indigenous communities.

Helicopters circling the area are had been playing a recording of the children’s grandmother, asking them to stay put in the family’s Huitoto indigenous language.

The eldest child, a girl called Lesly, wassaid to have extensive knowledge of how to survive in the forest.