Four Indigenous children missing for more than two weeks after a plane crash in the Colombian Amazon have been found alive, President Gustavo Petro said, declaring "joy for the country".
Mr Petro shared the news on Twitter, saying the children were discovered after "arduous search efforts" by the military.
Authorities had deployed more than 100 soldiers with sniffer dogs to search for the minors who were traveling in an airplane that crashed in the Amazon on 1 May, killing three adults.
Rescuers believe the four children, aged 13, nine, four and an 11-month-old baby, had been wandering through the jungle in the southern Caqueta department since the crash.
"The search efforts... have intensified in the last hours after finding new leads that could give indications about their whereabouts," the armed forces said in a statement earlier today.
Soldiers came across a "shelter built in an improvised way with sticks and branches", leading them to believe there were survivors.
In photographs released by the armed forces, scissors and a hair tie were seen amongst branches on the jungle floor.
Previously, a baby's drinking bottle and a half-eaten piece of fruit had been found.
Between Monday and Tuesday, soldiers found the bodies of the pilot and two adults who had been traveling from a jungle location to San Jose del Guaviare, one of the main cities in Colombia's Amazon rainforest.
One of the deceased passengers was the mother of the four children.
Giant trees that can grow up to 40 meters tall, wild animals and heavy rainfall made the "Operation Hope" search difficult.
Three helicopters were used to help, one of which blasted out a recorded message from the children's grandmother in the Huitoto language telling them to stop moving through the jungle.
Authorities have not indicated what caused the plane crash.
It is a region with few roads that is also difficult to access by river, so locals usually choose to travel by airplane.
