At least 33 people were killed Friday after a landslide in an indigenous community in northwestern Colombia, according to an updated government report released Saturday.

“According to preliminary reports from the area, I deeply regret the deaths of 33 people in this tragedy, mainly girls and boys,” Vice President Francia Márquez wrote on the X Network.

Earlier, authorities had recorded 23 deaths and 20 injuries, and on Friday evening they estimated that around 30 were trapped under the rubble that closed the road leading from the city of Medellín to Quibdó (northwest).

“All the help available to Chocó in this terrible tragedy,” President Gustavo Petro wrote on the X Network on Friday.

It has been raining for more than 24 hours in that area next to the Pacific Ocean, which is home to one of the rainiest jungles in the world.

Images shared on social networks and television channels show the moment a piece of mountain fell away and buried a line of cars as screams were heard.

“In the early morning hours, inspections were carried out on 17 bodies transferred from the scene of the tragedy” to Forensic Medicine in Medellín, three of which have already been identified, the Chocó governorate indicated in a bulletin.

There are several landslides that complicate the work of rescuers and firefighters arriving in the area.

“There is even a call for them to arrive with helicopters because there are several landslides and access is difficult,” a Chocó government official told the government. AFP.

Although Colombia is experiencing a dry season, the state Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) recorded heavy rainfall in some departments of the Pacific and the Amazon on Friday.

“Since last night, we have been working hand in hand with emergency and relief organizations on the Quibdó-Medellín road, where a landslide was recorded. We are using all our capabilities to rescue and help those affected,” the police said in X.

About 50 soldiers also arrived in the area to support the search efforts. Footage shared by the facility shows men in uniform, covered in mud, walking through swampy terrain.

“The (communications) signal at the location is very low and the weather is difficult,” the army said in a bulletin.

The search continues against the clock with excavators to find survivors under the rubble.

The governor of Chocó, Nubia Carolina Córdoba, complained “with deep pain” about the “grave emergency” that cuts off the passage from the capital of that department to Medellín, Colombia’s second city.

It is an “emergency that mourns the Chocuano people,” he added.

A local government official told AFP how “many people” managed to get out of their cars and “take shelter in a house” near the municipality of Carmen de Atrato, “but unfortunately an avalanche came and buried them .” (JO)