Nearly 24 hours after Colombia's government said they found four children who had gone missing after a plane crashed in the Amazon forest, President Gustavo Petro retracted his statement. He also deleted the tweet, which said the children had been found.
'Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Thursday retracted his claim that four Indigenous children missing for more than two weeks after an airplane crash in the Amazon had been found alive,' AFP tweeted.
"I am sorry for what happened. The military forces and Indigenous communities will continue in their tireless search to give the country the news it is waiting for," he wrote in his retraction. Army personnel and sniffer dogs continue the search for the children as the country waits with bated breath.
Rescuers believe, four children, between ages 11 months and 13 years have been wandering through the jungle in the southern Caqueta department since the crash.
"At this time there is no other priority other than progressing with the search until finding them," Petro said. "The children's lives are the most important thing."
The crash took place on May 1 when the aircraft was flying between Araracuara in Amazonas province and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province.