COLOMBIA on Wednesday declared three days of mourning for victims of an earthquake that demolished buildings in the west of the country, killing more than 200 people.
At 7.4 magnitude, Monday’s quake was the strongest to hit Colombia in a century.
The government said flags would be lowered to half-staff on official buildings, as well as at Colombian embassies around the world, “in honour of all the dead”.
Frantic attempts to find survivors continued, as authorities revised the death toll down to 216 after local officials in Cali corrected earlier figures.
In Pereira and in Cali, emergency crews used cranes, dogs and heavy machinery to search ruined buildings while volunteers formed human chains to clear debris by hand, hoping to reach people still trapped beneath collapsed structures.
The first two days after an earthquake are crucial for finding survivors under rubble, with some experts saying there is a 72-hour window, after which hopes quickly tail off. There was joy on Tuesday when rescuers pulled out 32-year-old Daniela Largo.
“We were losing hope and then we received a call,” said her mother Sandra Milena Perez in Pereira. — AFP
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