Colombia landslide leaves at least three dead and 20 missing

Country's heaviest rainy season in decades has claimed 270 lives

Handout picture released by Colombia's National Police press office showing rescuers woring in the site of a landslide in the sector El Ruso, Pueblo Rico municipality, in northwestern Bogota, Colombia, on December 4, 2022. - Brigaders are trying to rescue 31 people who were buried under a landslide while travelling in a bus and a motorbike in an accident that also left five people injured and a minor dead, officials said. (Photo by Handout / COLOMBIA'S NATIONAL POLICE PRESS OFFICE / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO - COLOMBIA'S NATIONAL POLICE PRESS OFFICE " - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

The accident also killed three people including a child and left five injured, officials said

The site of the landslide in the Pueblo Rico municipality of north-western Bogota

Twenty people were missing after the landslide

Rescuers at work at the site of the landslide

A landslide engulfed a road in a remote area of Colombia on Sunday, leaving three people dead and about 20 trapped in the mud.

Crews were searching for people travelling on a bus and a motorcycle that were caught up in the landslide in a remote area of Pueblo Rico municipality, in the north-west of the country.

“Nine rescued, three fatalities and an estimated 20 who remain to be found. It is a tragedy,” President Gustavo Petro wrote on Twitter.

Civil defence officials said one of the dead was a girl aged about seven.

A survivor said the driver of the bus managed to dodge the worst of the landslide.

“Part of it was coming down and the bus was a little bit back from that. The bus driver was backing up when it all came crashing down,” Andres Ibarguen told radio station Lloro Stereo.

The bus had set out from the city of Cali with 25 passengers, civil defence officials said.

This rainy season that began in August is Colombia's worst in 40 years, according to the government, causing accidents that have left more than 270 people dead.