Medellín Hillside Mudslide After Heavy Rain, Three Homes Destroyed, Two Residents Confirmed Dead

Medellín, Colombia— Heavy rain battered the eastern slopes above Medellín through the night, and at around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday a saturated hillside gave way, sending mud and rock through three homes and killing two people inside.

The slide started above the El Pinal neighborhood. Waterlogged soil slid 80 meters, snapping a retaining wall and hitting a row of brick houses built along a drainage channel. Two houses were flattened. A third was pushed off its foundation.

Neighbors dug with hands and shovels before civil defense arrived. By sunrise, rescue teams with dogs had recovered two bodies from the debris. The victims were identified as a mother and her teenage son. A father and younger daughter were pulled out alive with injuries.

"It rained without stopping. At 4 a.m. the hill made a noise like trucks. Then everything came down," said Marta Rios, who lives 30 meters uphill and lost power as poles snapped. She said cracks had appeared in the road a week earlier.

Medellín’s risk management agency said 86 millimeters of rain fell in six hours. The city has been on yellow alert for landslides since last week. Informal construction on steep slopes worsens the risk each rainy season.

Heavy machinery cleared a path for ambulances but could not enter the core slide zone because the ground was still moving. Engineers placed stakes to monitor further movement. About 20 families were ordered to evacuate to a school shelter.

"The soil is still saturated. We cannot bring in excavators until the slope stabilizes. We are working by hand to avoid further collapse," a civil defense commander said at the scene.

The mayor’s office announced emergency funds for temporary housing and said it would review building permits in the affected gully. Community leaders said they had asked for a drainage project two years ago.

The weather service forecast more rain through Wednesday. Crews will keep the area closed while geologists assess whether the upper slope needs controlled removal.