Mudslides have killed 150 people, injured 180 and left up to 200 missing after destroying homes in southern Colombia, the Red Cross and officials said Saturday. The surge swept away houses, bridges, vehicles and trees, leaving piles of wrecked timber and brown mud, army photographs from the town of Mocoa showed. The mudslides struck late Friday after days of torrential rain.

President Juan Manuel Santos visited Mocoa, the capital of Putumayo department, on Saturday to supervise rescue and assistance efforts in the heavily forested region. "I have just been informed that 150 people are dead," he said. "We don't know how many more there will be; we are still searching." Earlier, the Red Cross aid group's rescue official Cesar Urena told AFP that 150 people were dead and 180 injured. He warned that the death toll - initially put at 16 - would probably rise further because 200 people were still missing. "The number is rising enormously and at considerable speed," he said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017