The Colombian authorities found on Monday four more bodies that were killed by a landslide in Antioquia department, in the northwest of Colombia, bringing the total deaths to 17, local authorities said.

Regional director of the Administrative Department for the Prevention and Attention to Disasters (Dapard) John Freddy Rendon said that the rescue teams found four bodies in the last few hours.

The landslide occurred on Sunday and buried some 50 houses in the Medellin suburb of Bello, northwest of the Andean country.

Rendon said there are more than 300 rescuers working together with the Police and the National Army, however "there is little hope of finding people alive."

On Sunday night, Antioquia's governor Luis Alfredo Ramos told local radio station Radio Caracol that the number of missing people could surpass 100 and the number of fatalities could also increase.

He said that the Red Cross and other rescue teams estimated that at least 145 people were missing due to the landslide.

Meanwhile, the Colombian government has sent a letter to all the diplomatic missions in Bogota to ask for international aid to help the country cope with the current rain season which is forecast to last until March.

The rains in Colombia, classified as the most intense rainfalls in the last 40 years, have killed 189 people and left almost 2 million homeless.

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