国际英语新闻：45 cadavers found in Colombian landslide, search continues

BELLO, Colombia, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Colombian rescuers have found the bodies of 45 people buried in a landslide in the northeast of the country, and on Wednesday continue to search for more victims, even though there is now little hope of finding survivors.

The Regional Director of the Administrative Department for the Prevention and Attention to Disasters, John Freddy Rendon, told Xinhua that 45 bodies have now been found including "22 children, 11 women, and 12 men."

Rescue operations were suspended last night due to the intense rainfall on the La Gabriela neighborhood in the Bello municipality, Antioquia department.

Three hundred rescue workers and volunteers restarted rescue operations Wednesday, which are now more difficult because, according to Rendon, "the critical conditions of the land, due to the rainfall that makes the earth much heavier."

Last Sunday, some 50,000 cubic meters of earth fell on the municipality of Bello, burying between 30 and 50 homes which were occupied by between 124 and 145 people.

"There is no longer hope that we will find people alive here. We are still looking for the bodies of at least 100 people," said Rendon.

After a visit to the area, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos declared the country in a state of social, economic, and environmental emergency.

With this measure, the government can designate additional resources for "humanitarian attention" to save lives and provide food and shelter to 330,000 families, Santos said. "The needs overwhelm our economic capacity and have also overwhelmed specialized organizations that attend to disasters, who continue to give all their efforts," Santos said.

The most recent official report says that the rains have killed 206 Colombians and left 1.5 million homeless in 28 of the 32 departments in the country.