Colombia air crash: Death toll rises to 76, five rescued

According to the police, six survivors were rescued from the accident site, but one died while being taken to the hospital

The death toll from the crash of an airliner
carrying a Brazilian football team in Colombia rose to 76 on Tuesday as officials said only five people survived the disaster.

"We were able to rescue six people alive but one of them died on the way to the hospital," Jose Gerardo Acevedo, a police commander, told reporters.

Bodies of 25 people were been found at the accident site where a LAMIA airliner crashed with 81 people aboard, including members of a Brazilian football team, a local mayor said earlier.

Among the five survivors was football player Alan Ruschel, who was the defender of the Chapecoense Real, which was to face a Colubina team in the finals of the Copa Sudamericana on Wednesday, the head of Colombia's civil aviation agency, Alfredo Bocanegra, told reporters.

 

Elkin Osorio, the mayor of the nearby town of La Ceja, had said earlier that searchers had found 25 bodies and that there were five survivors from the tragic accident.