At least 18 people died this Friday buried by two landslides occurred on a highway near the town of Carmen de Atratoin the Colombian department of Chocó (west), which also left about 30 injured, official sources reported. “18 dead people have been identified,” Jaime Herrera, mayor of Carmen de Atrato, a municipality in whose vicinity there was a landslide that buried several vehicles that were stopped, apparently due to an avalanche that previously blocked the highway between Medellín, told Noticias Caracol. and Quibdó, the capital of Chocó.

In a video recorded by witnesses to the tragedy, a line of vehicles is seen stopped on the road, waiting for the passage to open, when suddenly the mountain falls down burying them with their occupants. The mayor added that the death toll may increase because the relief teams continue to remove the tons of earth that fell on the travelers.

“Tonight, so far, 18” have died from the avalanche, which also left a Undetermined number of injured and missing, he added. For her part, the governor of Chocó, Nubia Carolina Córdobastated in a statement “that an emergency of serious proportions has occurred on the road that leads from Quibdó to Medellín, in the sector known as El 17,” but did not give death tolls although he spoke of the tasks for “the recovery of the bodies and immediate attention to the wounded.

“Faced with the sad situation in Chocó (…) we raise prayers for the success of the rescue operations. My solidarity with the victims and their families in this painful moment for our department and the country,” he stated on his account. X (formerly Twitter) the Colombian ambassador in Washington, Luis Gilberto Murillo, a native of Chocó. Previously, the vice president of Colombia, France Marquezsaid in X to have been informed “of a emergency on the Quibdó-Medellín highwayat kilometer 17 of the municipality of Carmen del Atrato, Chocó, following a landslide that has left dozens of people and vehicles trapped in the area. According to the vice president, preliminary reports indicated “that there may be five people dead and approximately 30 people injured because of the avalanche.”

Márquez Mina has detailed in the same message that they are carrying out “the necessary actions to address this emergency” in coordination with the Mayor’s Office of Carmen del Atrato, the local Choco Police Command, the Civil Defense, the National Army of Colombia, the Ministry of Health and The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).

“We have information from the Emergency Regulatory Center that in the Toldas sector about 50 people took shelter from the rain in a home and the landslide occurred right above that home,” the head of Operations for La Cruz told Noticias Caracol. Colombian Red, Lina Dorado.