State of calamity declared in Colombian city after 154 killed in mudslides

BOGOTA. KAZINFORM Colombia's president said Saturday that a state of calamity had been declared in the southern city of Mocoa after rivers burst their banks due to heavy rain and triggered mudslides that left at least 154 dead, EFE  reports.

Juan Manuel Santos, who traveled to the scene in Mocoa, capital of Putumayo province, to supervise the disaster relief efforts, said roughly 200 people were injured.

"We're going to prepare an action plan with Carlos Ivan Marquez (head of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management), with the provincial government and all the institutions that are present here," Santos said upon his arrival in Mocoa.

The tragedy occurred Friday night when the Mocoa River and its Sangoyaco and Mulatos tributaries burst their banks due to torrential rainfall on Friday night, triggering an avalanche of water, mud and rocks that pummeled several neighborhoods in Mocoa.

Military units in that area of southern Colombia, near the Ecuadorian border, are chiefly responsible for the disaster response.

The state of calamity declaration will help authorities respond as well as possible to the situation, Santos said.

"We're going to prepare an action plan ... and begin the whole humanitarian aid process. We're of course going to treat the injured, we're going to begin the funeral process to attend to all the people who died and we're also going to begin re-establishing services that were suspended," the president said.