Hundreds of people are missing after torrential rains triggered mudslides in southern Colombia, killing at least 24 people, according to authorities.
Sorrel Aroca, the governor of Putumayo, an area near the country’s border with Ecuador, said at least 65 people were injured after a river flooded on midnight Friday in Mocoa, a city of 350,000 people.
He told the local radio station W Radio that “whole neighbourhoods were missing” and “hundreds of families” had yet to be found.
Videos and pictures uploaded to Twitter showed wood planks, mud and piles of rubble from destroyed buildings littering Mocoa’s streets.
Colombia’s national disaster agency warned the death toll could rise.
Carlos Ivan Marquez, the director of the national disaster agency, told the AFP news agency that a crisis group, including military units, police and rescue teams, had been activated to search for the missing people, as well as begin removing hundreds of tons of debris.
President Juan Manuel Santos said he would travel to Mocoa to supervise rescue and assistance efforts in the heavily forested region.
His presence would “guarantee attention to the victims of this tragedy, which has all Colombians in mourning”, he said in a Twitter message.