People Travel on an Outdoor Public Escalator at Commune, Colombia

Long Public Escalator

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Officials in Colombia's second-largest city on Monday inaugurated a giant, outdoor escalator for residents of one of its poorest neighborhoods.

For generations, the 12,000 residents of Medellin's tough Comuna 13, which clings to the side of a steep hillside, have had to climb hundreds of large steps authorities say is the same as going up a 28-story building.

Now they can ride an escalator Medellin's mayor says is the first massive, outdoor public escalator for use by residents of a poor area.

"It turned out very well," said Mayor Alonso Salazar, adding that he has not heard of any such project elsewhere in this world.

Salazar said officials from Rio de Janeiro plan to visit Medellin to see if such an escalator would work in that city's favelas, which also cling precariously to hillsides.

Comuna 13 residents came out to celebrate and study the $6.7 million escalator which officials say will shorten the 35-minute hike on foot up the hillside to six minutes. Use of the escalator is free.

"This is a dream come true," homemaker Olga Holguin told RCN television.

Cesar Hernandez, head of projects for Medellin, said the electric stairway is divided into six sections and has a length of 384 meters (1,260 feet). An escalator goes up and a second goes down. Authorities plan to build a covering for inclement whether.

Salazar described Comuna 13 as the city's district that has "suffered the greatest urban violence... but lately this has been receding and we hope this social package will help it move forward."

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Colombia: several deaths and at least 28 missing in a landslide

Landslide in Colombia

AFP - Four people died and at least 28 people are missing following a landslide that buried ten homes in the Colombian city of Manizales (278 km west of Bogota), announced Saturday the Cross Red AFP. "We have a confirmed list of 28 people who were there" when the incident occurred, told AFP Jorge Zambrano, coordinator of the relief agency in Manizales, a city of about 350,000 inhabitants. According to an initial assessment in addition to these 28 missing at least four people were killed in the landslide, has announced the Red Cross.

The fire chief of the region, Carlos Marin, for his part told the press that at least 32 families were affected by the landslide and said five places where there might be the victims had been located. The man called on residents to be cautious, noting that the ground was unstable. The rainy season, which began in late September in Colombia, has killed more than forty people and left 250,000 homeless. Three other people also died Saturday after a mudslide on their house, not far from Calarca (Quindio department) in the west

Between April 2010 and April 2011, unusually heavy rains caused by the weather phenomenon La Nina, had killed over 400 people and left 3.6 million homeless. La Nina is a cyclical weather phenomenon that is characterized by lower average temperatures in the sea surface in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. Click here to find out more!

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