More than 200 people killed in Colombian earthquake

**Janet Jaleel** (0:00)
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jaleel, and at 15 Hours GMT, on Tuesday the 11th of August, these are our main stories. The number of dead in Colombia's powerful earthquake rises to more than 200 as a race is on to find survivors trapped under the rubble. Reports say President Trump hid in a catering truck so he could swap planes because of a threat against him and Air Force One from Iran. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres is warning of an extreme hunger crisis among children in Somalia.
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We begin in Colombia, where as we record this podcast, the death toll from a devastating earthquake in the west of the country has now risen to more than 220 people. The 7.4 magnitude quake tore through Colombia's coffee-growing heartland on Monday, reducing multi-storey buildings to rubble in cities like Carly and Pereira, and causing the spires of a cathedral to collapse in the city of Manizales. It's the most powerful quake to hit Colombia in decades. A state of emergency has been declared. And rescue teams are now in a race against time to find survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings. When they hear someone beneath the ruins, they call out, telling them to stay calm as the rescuers try to reach them.
Isabel Tamayo lives in one of the worst hit cities, Cali, and spoke to the BBC about the rescue efforts there.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:00)
They're still trying to get survivors. And there was a school that collapsed, and it has a lot of children in there still. So maybe more than 50 children.
But I'm not so sure, from six years old to 16 years old.

**Janet Jaleel** (2:20)
Blocked roads and disrupted communications are hampering rescue efforts. Flights were cancelled, as some airports were used exclusively in the effort to find survivors and help the injured and displaced. This disaster comes just three days after Colombia's new president, Abelardo de la Espriella, was inaugurated.
Now facing his first big test, he's vowed to personally lead the disaster response.

**Abelardo de la Espriella** (2:45)
I have ordered the suspension of my entire schedule in the nation's capital, so that I can focus on the natural disaster that is currently ravaging our long-suffering Colombian people.

**Janet Jaleel** (2:57)
I got this update from BBC Monitoring's Latin America specialist, Luis Fajardo.

**Luis Fajardo** (3:01)
The rescue crews have been working throughout the night as they try to find new survivors, particularly in the large cities of Cali, Manizales and Pereira, which have been some of the hardest hit. The city of Cali, which is the third largest in Colombia, a metropolitan area of around 3 million people, has been under curfew as the mayor warned that there could be looting and other incidents as a result of the widespread disruption this earthquake has caused.
And of course, people throughout the country are waiting to see what these search and rescue operations result. I mean, usually it is said that the first 48 hours or so after an earthquake are crucial to find survivors still under the rubble. And there certainly is hope that some more people will be found alive.

**Janet Jaleel** (3:55)
And other countries have been sending in rescue teams, including Venezuela, which itself saw powerful earthquakes just a couple of months ago.

**Luis Fajardo** (4:03)
Yes, a lot of people have been making the comparison with Venezuela, which as you say, experienced an earthquake of similar intensity. Also, people are mentioning that the death toll in Venezuela, apparently until now, was substantially larger than the one in Colombia and Venezuela in the thousands. While in Colombia, it still seems to be in the hundreds. People are making the comparison, both in Colombia and Venezuela.
They're saying that building codes in Colombia were stronger.
And because of that very, very strong earthquake in Colombia, which caused the destruction of a lot of buildings, but not at the same scale as in Venezuela. And also, the initial reports are that the response from the authorities has been rather more effective in Colombia than was the case in Venezuela. In the Venezuelan case, there was a lot of criticism of the government. People saying that there was little or no response from authorities. Most people were desperate to try to get the survivors out of the rubble. While in Colombia, until now, there has been more of a sense that the government is reacting.