15 April 2011

Two more landslides in Colombia

Posted by Dave Petley

The start of the winter season in Colombia is being associated with the dfebelopment of heavy rainfall, resulting in floods and landslides (see link here in Spanish).  Yesterday a large landslide occurred near to near El Diamante on the road between Manizales and Bogota.  Unfortunately, at the time a small bus was passing through – the landslide is reported to have knocked the bus into a ravine, killing 14 people and leaving a further four missing with little chance of having survived.  This report (in Spanish) notes that the bodies were found up to 25 km downstream from the accident site.

The video below shows the accident site.  It appears that the even was probably a debris flow:

This accident occurred the day after another landslide, this time in village of Piedras Blancas, San Roque in northern Antioquia, which killed fourpeople when it buried their house.