Colombian children who spent 40 days in Amazon doing 'very well' after leaving hospital

Siblings were the only survivors of a plane crash

Soldiers from the Colombian Army were led to four young Indigenous children who spent more than a month in the Amazon rainforest after a plane crash in the Guaviare jungle killed the adults on board. All photos: AFP

Relatives of the four Indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon forest wait at a plane at military base in Bogota

Manuel Ranoque, left, father of the four Indigenous children, follows them off a plane at a military base in Bogota

Members of the Columbian Army give First Aid to four Indigenous children who were found alive after spending more than a month lost in the Amazon jungle after their plane crashed

The search for the four missing children led to a rescue operation involving hundreds of people on foot, President Gustavo Petro said

Troops were led to the four children after searchers picked up a trail that included scraps of the fruit they ate to survive and the rough shelters they built

Four indigenous children are doing 'very well' after surviving 40 days in the Colombian Amazon, authorities said on Friday as they were released from a military hospital.

Lesly, 13, Soleiny, nine, Tien Noriel, nine and one-year-old baby Cristin were the only survivors after the small plane they were flying in crashed in the jungle in June.

All three adults on board, including their mother, died. The eldest sister has been credited with keeping her siblings alive throughout the ordeal.

The four were discharged from the Bogota hospital on Thursday night, said the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, which will temporarily take custody of the children for six months until a permanent decision is taken on their care.

"They have recovered size and weight, really they are very well," said Astrid Caceres, the director of the institute. "The second phase of caring and protecting them begins.

"We're entering a transitional phase for the protection of the children."

The children show no physical effects from the 40 days they spent wandering the Amazon, she said, and even little Cristin is "completely recovered in terms of physical development".

The children appeared emaciated in photos taken shortly after they were found, and in the hospital they were given food typical of the Huitoto Indigenous group to which they belong, such as cassava flour.

Astrid Caceres, director of the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, and Luis Fajardo, deputy ombudsman, said the children will remain in the custody of the state. EPA

Relatives say the children managed to survive thanks to Lesly's deep knowledge of survival in the jungle, with its many dangers - including snakes, predatory animals and armed criminal groups.

It took nearly 200 military and indigenous rescuers with search dogs to track them down.

After their rescue a custody battle ensued between the maternal grandparents and the father of the two younger children.

The siblings will live with other children in a shelter. Ms Caceres said the children will be in a rural area where they will feel "comfortable".