Six dead, 14 missing in Colombia flood

Six people died and 14 were missing after a rain-swollen river flooded Tumaco and other towns on Colombia's Pacific coast, leaving 2,500 families homeless, authorities said.

Six people died and 14 were missing after a rain-swollen river flooded Tumaco and other towns on Colombia's Pacific coast, leaving 2,500 families homeless, authorities said yesterday.

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Pacific Naval Force commander Jesus Bejarano said the drowned and missing were all from the port city of Tumaco, 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) southwest of Bogota.

"Initial reports speak of six dead and 14 missing," the government's Emergency Prevention Service director Luz Amanda Pulido told reporters.

The two towns of Barbacoas and Ricaurte were also flooded by the Mira river after rains soaked the region, leaving at least 2,500 families without a home, Bejarano added.

The number of evacuations was likely to rise because "nearly all riverside inhabitants were affected" by the floods, Pulido noted after having flown over the stricken area.