More than 250 killed and many injured in Mocoa landslide

At least 254 people, including dozens of children, have died after a severe landslide engulfed a city in south-western Colombia.

Many families in Mocoa stayed up through the night to search through the debris, despite the lack of electricity in the city.

Santos, who visited Mocoa for a second straight day Sunday, declared the area a disaster zone.

The death toll could still rise because authorities say there were over 200 people injured, some in a critical condition and over 200 still missing. Many residents didn't have time to scramble to rooftops or to escape to higher ground.

Heavy rain flooded the city of Mocoa in the country's southwest with mud and rocks, burying whole neighbourhoods and forcing residents to flee their homes.

"Around here, there's nobody".

Garreta said that night she had found a 5-year-old boy clinging to a washing machine that had been carried away by the waters. A grim search for the missing resumed at dawn Sunday in southern Colombia after surging rivers sent an avalanche of floodwaters, mud and debris through a city, killing at least 200 people and leaving many more injured and homeless.

It said FARC members were prepared to help rebuild the town.

Calderon claimed climate change for the disaster, saying Mocoa had received one-third of its usual monthly rain in just one night, causing the rivers to burst their banks.

Sandra Valenzuela, planning and development director for the World Wildlife Fund in Colombia, said she was relieved to learn that five staffers and 13 consultants survived the tragedy.

The tragedy drew worldwide attention, with Pope Francis mentioning the catastrophe during his Angelus blessing on Sunday on a visit to the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna, which was struck by a pair of deadly earthquakes five years ago. "That's why the system is still trying to locate them and will continue to do so until we find the last person".

Dr. Herman Granados, a surgeon at a hospital in Mocoa, said the medical staff there was overwhelmed and that blood supplies were running very low.

Rescuers continued to search for survivors.

He said some of the hospital workers came to help even while there are own relatives remained missing.

"There were bodies all over", he said.

"Nobody has given me news", a man said, surrounded by mud and rubble.

Rescue workers with the military directed him towards the mountain, where he found his relatives camped with other survivors.

"We offer our prayers for all of them". The president said the avalanche of water and debris also destroyed roads and bridges, knocked out power in half of the province of Putumayo, where Mocoa is located, and destroyed the area's fresh water network, creating risky and unsanitary conditions.