Hundreds still missing in Colombia as desperation grips earthquake rescue effort

In Cali, the country's third-largest city, crews shifted from a search-and-rescue effort to debris removal at most sites, a sign the disaster response was entering a grimmer phase after the crucial first 72 hours.

"Unfortunately, we are reaching a point where the likelihood of finding survivors is dwindling, but our mission is to keep searching and find all those people who are reported missing," David Tamayo, head of Colombia's National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, said on Thursday evening.

The 7.4-magnitude quake struck shortly after 7:30 a.m. on Monday, toppling apartment blocks, damaging homes, schools and hospitals, sending residents into the streets across western Colombia, home to the country's coffee farms.

At least 281 people were killed — many in Cali and Pereira, a city in the ⁠coffee region — and more than 3,900 injured, according to government data on Thursday evening. The data indicated 379 people were still reported to be missing.

In Pereira, Enrique Marin said he drove more than 10 hours from Bogota after getting a call from a friend who told him Marin's mother was trapped underneath the rubble of her home.

"My mother was rescued six hours after the earthquake. They pulled her out with vital signs, but she died on the way to the hospital," Marin said as he stood in front of the debris clutching a bicycle from his childhood, the only item he said he was able to recover from the house.

He said his mother was found in her pajamas with the house keys still in her hand.

At the Torres del Limonar residential complex in southern Cali, work became frenzied for volunteers in bucket brigades, as a coordinator with a megaphone reminded them of the limited time and scolded two volunteers who approached without helmets.

Elsewhere in the rubble, crews carefully handed down gas tanks removed from the debris as workers called for silence for the more delicate rescue operations.

Monica Mina, a 38-year-old restaurant owner, said she and other chefs in the city were working ‌almost around the ⁠clock to distribute about 1,000 meals a day — including scrambled eggs and pork — for rescuers, medics and volunteers.

Some 133 km (83 miles) north in Roldanillo Cemetery, Colombia's disappeared persons unit said it was investigating camouflage-clad human remains exposed by the earthquake.

First major test for new Colombian government

Outside major cities, rescue groups said smaller towns and communities were still struggling with little or no response from the Colombian government.

Nazly Lozano, the International Rescue Committee's program assistant at the port city of Buenaventura northwest of Cali, said rescue workers had not reached some stricken areas until Wednesday night, leaving locals to dig through the rubble with their bare hands in a desperate search for ⁠survivors.

IRC workers said some neighborhoods in Buenaventura remained inaccessible due to armed groups, some of which seized food donations, vowing to distribute these items themselves.

Residents still lack basic services such as water, gas and electricity, the IRC workers said.

More than 150 aftershocks have been recorded since Monday, adding to the risks for rescue workers combing through the debris as well as people made homeless by the initial quake, which was one of the strongest felt in ⁠Colombia in several decades.

The government has estimated the quake destroyed more than 10,500 homes.

President Abelardo De La Espriella, who took office just days before the disaster, said on Wednesday he would declare an economic emergency and create a reconstruction fund to channel domestic and international aid toward rebuilding hospitals, schools, homes and infrastructure.

The disaster is shaping up as the first major test for the conservative president, who ⁠campaigned on cutting public spending and now faces the task of financing relief and reconstruction while showing his government can manage a national crisis.

Colombian officials have also pushed back against criticism over the handling of foreign assistance, saying the government has not rejected any country's offer but will only accept international search-and-rescue teams that meet recognized certification standards.