This handout picture released by the Colombian Presidency shows one of the four Indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon rainforest following a plane crash resting at a hospital bed in Bogota on June 10, 2023.
Prensa presidencial / Colombian Presidency / AFP
Four Colombian Indigenous children who survived a plane crash in the country’s Amazon region and lived for more than five weeks in the jungle have been released from hospital after a 34-day stay, the government said on Friday.
The children, aged 1 through 13, survived the May 1 crash that killed their mother and two other adults and were found last month.
The Indigenous children’s knowledge of the jungle, as well as the eldest sister’s courage, have been credited by officials with saving their lives.
READ | Miracle in the jungle: How four children survived alone for 40 days
“They have recovered size and weight, really they are very well,” Astrid Caceres, the director of the country’s child welfare institute, told journalists.
“The second phase of caring and protecting them begins.”
The wreckage of the plane was found two weeks after it crashed. (PHOTO: Gallo Images/Getty Images)
The siblings will remain under the care of the institute because of a “complex family situation,” she said, and final custody arrangements for them will be decided in six months.
“We’re entering a transitional phase for the protection of the children,” Caceres added.
Both the father of the two youngest children and their mother’s family have told media they want custody.
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