Four children have been found alive after surviving a plane crash in Colombia’s Amazon jungle and fending for themselves for weeks.
Colombia’s president said the recovery of the siblings, aged 13, 9, 4 and one, was “joy for the whole country”.
The children’s mother and two pilots were killed when their light plane crashed in a forest on May 1.
The missing children became the focus of a massive rescue operation involving dozens of soldiers and local people.
President Gustavo Pietro said it was a “magical day” to find the group, adding: “They were alone, they alone achieved an example of total survival that will go down in history.
“These children today are the children of peace and the children of Colombia.”
Mr Petro shared a photo of soldiers and several members of the local community caring for the siblings, who had been missing for 40 days. One of the rescuers held a bottle to the youngest child’s mouth, while another spoon-fed one of the other children from a cup.
A video shared by the Colombian Ministry of Defense shows the children being transported in a helicopter in the dark above the tall trees of the forest.
Mr Pietro said the siblings were receiving medical attention – and that he had spoken to their grandfather, who told him “Mother Jungle gave them back”.
The children were taken to the country’s capital, Bogotá, where ambulances took them to a hospital for further medical treatment.
The Cessna 206 plane the children and their mother were traveling in before the crash, flying from Araraquara in the Amazonas province to San Jose del Govier, when it issued a May Day alert due to engine failure.
The army recovered the bodies of three adults from the crash site, but it appears that the children escaped the wreckage and wandered into the rainforest for help.
A massive search ensued and in May, rescuers recovered what the children had left behind, including a baby’s drinking bottle, a pair of scissors, a hair tie and a makeshift shelter.
Small footprints were also discovered, leading search teams to believe the children were still alive in the rainforest, which is home to jaguars, snakes and other predators.
The children belong to the Hueto indigenous group and their community members hoped that their knowledge of fruits and forest survival skills would give them a better chance of survival.
Locals joined the search and helicopters broadcast a message from the children’s grandmother, recorded in the Huitoto language, urging them to stop moving so it would be easier to find them.
Colombia’s president came under fire last month after a tweet on his account mistakenly announced the children had been found.
He deleted the tweet the next day, saying that the information – which his office had provided from Colombia’s child welfare agency – could not be verified.
