Colombia plane crash: Four children found alive in Amazon jungle after 40 days

Four children have been found alive after a plane crashed in Colombia. The children were found after they spent weeks fending for themselves in the Amazon jungle.

Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, said the rescue of the siblings, aged 13, nine, four and one, was "a joy for the whole country". The mother of the children and two pilots were killed when their aircraft crashed in the jungle on May 1.

The Cessna 206 aircraft carrying the children and their mother was flying from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure. A huge rescue operation involving dozens of soldiers and local people was issued to find the missing children after they escaped the wreckage to find help.

The Colombian president said finding the children was a "magical day", adding: "They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history.

"These children are today the children of peace and the children of Colombia."

The 63-year-old shared a photograph of several members of the military and Indigenous community alongside the siblings, who had been missing for 40 days. In the image, one of the rescuers is holding a bottle up to the mouth of the smallest child, while another fed another child from a mug with a spoon.

Colombia’s ministry of defence shared a video which showed the children being airlifted into a helicopter from the Amazon. Mr Petro revealed the siblings were receiving medical attention - and that he had spoken to their grandfather, who told him "the mother jungle returned them".

Following the rescue mission, the children have been flown to the nation’s capital Bogota, where ambulances have taken them to hospital for further medical treatment.