Almost a month after the crash of a small plane in the rainforest of Colombia, soldiers have found new clues in the search for four missing children. A footprint discovered in the mud could belong to the 13-year-old girl, the armed forces said on Tuesday. In addition, the soldiers found fruits that could serve as a source of food for the children. "The search has not been stopped and we continue to hope to find the children with the help of satellites that provide orientation to the soldiers and indigenous people in the area," the armed forces wrote on Twitter.
The four siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and one year, had crashed on May 1 with a Cessna 206 propeller plane in the department of Caquetá in the south of the country. Her mother, the pilot and an indigenous leader were killed in the accident. In search of the children, the soldiers found shoes, diapers, a baby bottle, an emergency shelter built from leaves and branches, and half-eaten fruit. However, the rainforest in the region is very dense, which makes the search for the missing much more difficult.
The children belong to an indigenous community and, according to media reports, had been with their mother on their way to the capital Bogotá, where the father had fled after constant threats from armed groups. Their knowledge of the region may have helped them survive in the jungle after the crash.
lmd/dpa