Four Colombian children have been found alive in the Amazon more than two weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed into dense jungle.

On May 1, a Cessna 206 aircraft carrying seven people on a route between Araracuara in Amazonas province and San José del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, issued a May Day alert due to a failure in the engine, Reuters reported.

Three adults, including the pilot, died in the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane.

The four children, ages 13, nine and four, as well as an 11-month-old baby, survived the impact.

On Wednesday, President Gustavo Petro said in a statement on Twitter that the children had been found.

The children were rescued by members of the army, firefighters and officials from the civil aviation authority in the dense jungle of the Colombian province of Caquetá.

“After an arduous search by our military, we have found the four children who disappeared after a plane crash in Guaviare alive. A joy for the country”, said Petro.

Civil aviation authorities, who coordinated the rescue efforts, believe the children escaped the plane after the crash and headed into the jungle for help.

Rescue teams, including search dogs, previously found discarded fruit that children ate to survive and improvised shelters made from jungle vegetation.

Planes and helicopters from the Colombian Army and Air Force participated in the rescue operations.

Authorities have yet to reveal what caused the plane to crash, although the pilot had reported engine problems before the plane disappeared from radar, AFP reported.

Earlier this week, soldiers found the bodies of the pilot and two adults on the plane.

One of the deceased, identified as Ranoque Mucutuy, was the mother of the four children who are from the Huitoto ethnic group.

Authorities said the rescue efforts included three helicopters, including one that dropped a recorded message from the children’s grandmother in the Huitoto language telling them to stop moving through the jungle.