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8 dead, 4 injured and 30 missing in Colombian landslide

Xinhua, June 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

At least eight workers died, four injured and over 30 more are missing in a landslide that occurred in northwestern Colombia on Thursday night, the country's office for disaster management (UNGRD) said Friday.

The workers were building a highway along the Medellin-Quibdo road in the northwestern state of Choco when the landslide caused by intense rains in recent days tore through a section of the roadway, UNGRD said.

Rescue efforts began in the early hours of Friday, with eight bodies having been found, before being briefly suspended due to the risk of provoking other landslides.

"At the moment, eight people have been killed, four more have been injured, three machines have been destroyed and one road has been affected," said a UNGRD report issued on Friday afternoon.

The UNGRD confirmed that over 30 workers are also still missing.

One survivor, Heiler Chavarra, told Colombian daily El Tiempo that he saw the landslide move a bulldozer "almost 1,000 meters", adding that "all those nearby were caught by it."

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wrote on Twitter that he "lamented the death of eight people in a landslide along the Medellin-Quibdo road" in the northwestern state of Choco. Endit