A mud­slide in cen­tral Colom­bia killed at least 14 peo­ple ear­ly Tues­day and blocked a high­way that con­nects Bo­go­ta to the na­tion’s east­ern plains, of­fi­cials said.

The avalanche of mud and de­bris took down sev­er­al homes in Que­tame, a mu­nic­i­pal­i­ty lo­cat­ed an hour’s dri­ve south­east of Bo­go­ta. It was un­leashed by heavy rains that flood­ed three streams.

Po­lice said they were search­ing for miss­ing peo­ple who could be buried un­der the de­bris. The mud­slide al­so swept over a toll booth and tore down a bridge on the Bo­go­ta-Villav­i­cen­cio high­way, forc­ing po­lice to redi­rect traf­fic.

Many of the homes af­fect­ed by the mud­slide were built along hill­sides, close to rivers.

Colom­bian Pres­i­dent Gus­ta­vo Petro gave his con­do­lences to the vic­tims on Twit­ter, and wrote that the in­ci­dent “demon­strates that there is an im­per­a­tive need” for lo­cal of­fi­cials to plan ur­ban ar­eas more rig­or­ous­ly, leav­ing greater space around wa­ter­ways.

The mud­slide will dis­rupt com­merce be­tween east­ern Colom­bia and Bo­go­ta, which is a key tran­sit route for beef, rice and palm oil.

BO­GO­TA, Colom­bia (AP)