Confusion as three children and baby reported to be found alive 17 days after plane crash

Authorities in Colombia have contradicted each other over the fate of three children and a baby who have been missing since a plane crash 17 days ago.

The plane they were travelling in went down in the jungle of Colombia's Caquetá province on 1 May after issuing a mayday warning over engine failure.

There were seven people on board the plane - a Cessna 206 - when it went down on a flight between Araracuara and San Jose del Guaviare following the mayday alert.

It is thought that the three adults on board the plane died as a result of the impact, but Colombia's president Gustavo Petro recently announced that the children had been recovered safely.

"After arduous searching by our military, we have found alive the four children who went missing after a plane crash in Guaviare. A joy for the country," he wrote on Twitter.

Twitter/@petrogustavo

However, according to Colombian news outlets, his message that the military had found the children safely had caused confusion as the military have told them that's not the case.

The military have been searching for survivors of the plane crash with planes, helicopters and search dogs and they believe the four to have survived the crash.

The children appear to have fled into the rainforest after escaping the plane and rescue attempts believe they've found fruit the children have eaten to survive as well as makeshift shelters they are believed to have built.

While those searching for the children say they haven't yet been found local media believes that the Colombian president announced they had been rescued after being told as much.

The El Espectador reports that Colombian government agency Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF) told president Petro the children had been found with minor injuries.

Colombia Armed Forces

They report that the official who told the president did not know for sure whether or not they had been found as they had been told it by someone else.

The ICBF had said they'd received information from the region saying 'contact' had been made with the children and assumed that meant they'd been found.

They then told the president so he could announce the news to the country even though they hadn't actually found the children yet.

The missing children are 13-year-old Lesly Mucutuy, nine-year-old Soleiny Mucutuy, four-year-old Tien Noriel Ronoque Mucutuy and baby Cristin Neriman Ranoque Mucutuy who is 11 months old.

Near the wreckage of the plane, officials found a body they believe to belong to the pilot Hernando Murcia, while nearby they also found the bodies of Herman Mendoza Hernández and Magdalena Mucutui Valencia, the mother of all four missing children.