BOGOTA (Reuters) – At least 11 people were killed and 35 injured after a landslide covered several homes in central Colombia on Tuesday, the country’s disaster management agency said.
The incident in Dosquebradas, close to the city of Pereira, followed heavy rains in the surrounding coffee-growing province.
“A landslide recorded in the early morning in the La Esneda neighborhood has so far left 35 injured people, who are being attended at hospitals, and 11 dead,” the UNGRD disaster agency said on Twitter.
Local authorities have evacuated dozens of nearby homes as the Otun river has overflowed.
Landslides are common in Colombia due to mountainous terrain, frequent heavy rains and poor or informal construction of housing.
The country’s most recent large landslide disaster was in the city of Mocoa in 2017, when over 320 people were killed.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
