The Colombian military shared a photo of children in the jungle
Four children have been found alive after surviving a plane crash and spent weeks fending for themselves in Colombia’s Amazon jungle.
Colombia’s president said the rescue of the siblings, aged 13, nine, four and one, was “a joy for the whole country”.
The children’s mother and two pilots died when their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on 1 May.
The missing children became the focus of a major rescue operation involving dozens of soldiers and local people.
President Gustavo Petro said that finding the group was a “magical day”, adding: “They alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival that will remain in history.
“These children today are children of peace and children of Colombia.”
Mr Petro shared a photo of several members of the military and indigenous community taking care of the brothers, who have been missing for 40 days. One of the rescuers held a bottle up to the smallest child’s mouth, while the other fed one of the other children from a mug with a spoon.
A video shared by Colombia’s ministry of defense showed children being airlifted in a helicopter in the dark above tall jungle trees.
Mr Petro said the siblings were receiving medical attention – and that he had spoken to their grandfather, who told him “the mother jungle has brought them back”.
The children were flown to the country’s capital Bogota, where ambulances took them to the hospital for further medical treatment.
The Cessna 206 aircraft carrying the children and their mother before the crash was flying from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure.
The bodies of three adults were found at the crash site by the army, but it appears that the children escaped the wreckage and wandered into the rainforest in search of help.
A massive search began and in May, rescuers recovered items left behind by the children, including a child’s drinking bottle, a pair of scissors, a hair tie and a makeshift shelter.
Small footprints were also discovered, leading search teams to believe the children were still alive in the rainforest, which is home to jaguars, snakes and other predators.
The children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group and members of their community hope that their knowledge of the fruit and jungle survival skills will give them a better chance of staying alive.
Natives joined the search and helicopters broadcast a message from the children’s grandmother, recorded in the Huitoto language, urging them to stop moving to make it easier to find them.
Colombia’s president came under fire last month when a tweet published on his account falsely claimed the children had been found.
He deleted the tweet the next day saying the information – provided to his office by Colombia’s child welfare agency – could not be confirmed.
The soldiers posed for pictures with the children, whose faces were blurred
