Bogota: Four Indigenous children who went missing 40 days ago after surviving a small plane crash in the Amazon jungle were found alive on Friday, according to Colombian authorities, capping a frantic search that engulfed the country.

President Gustavo Petro told reporters upon his arrival back in Bogota from Cuba, where he signed a cease-fire agreement with representatives of the National Liberation Army rebel group, that the children were unaccompanied when searchers discovered them and that they are currently receiving medical care.

The president declared the kids to be "examples of survival" and stated that their story "will remain in history." No information about how the kids survived on their own for so long was immediately made public.

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The Cessna single-engine propeller plane carrying six people and a pilot made an emergency declaration due to an engine failure in the early hours of May 1. This is when the crash occurred.

Shortly after the small plane vanished from radar, a desperate search for survivors started. The plane was discovered in a dense area of the rainforest two weeks after the crash, on May 16, and the bodies of the three adults on board were recovered, but the small children were not present.

Sensing that they might still be alive, Colombia's army intensified its search for the four siblings, ages 13, 9, 4, and 11 months, and flew 150 soldiers into the area with dogs to find them. Numerous Indigenous tribe volunteers also contributed to the search.

The children were wrapped in thermal blankets when the soldiers and volunteers posed for photos with them, according to images the military tweeted on Friday. The smallest child was given a bottle by one of the soldiers. The military command of Colombia stated on its Twitter account that "the combination of our efforts made this possible."

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Soldiers on helicopters dropped boxes of food into the jungle in the course of the search in an area where visibility is severely hindered by mist and dense vegetation in the hopes that it would help the kids survive. Rescuers used megaphones to blast a message recorded by the siblings' grandmother instructing them to stay in one place while searching for the siblings using flares fired from aircraft flying over the jungle at night.

Additionally, there were rumours about the whereabouts of the kids, and on May 18, President Petro tweeted that the kids had been located. He later deleted the message, claiming a government agency had given him incorrect information.

From the Amazonian village of Araracuara to San Jose del Guaviare, a small town on the edge of the jungle, the group of four kids had been travelling with their mother.

They belong to the Huitoto tribe, and according to officials, the oldest kids in the group knew how to survive in the rain forest.

The president revealed on Friday that he had initially thought the kids had been saved by one of the nomadic tribes that still roam the remote area of the jungle where the plane crashed and have little interaction with the authorities.

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Petro clarified, however, that one of the rescue dogs that the soldiers brought into the jungle had actually discovered the kids first. He stated that he intended to see the kids on Saturday.

They were saved by the jungle, Petro said. They were born in the jungle, but they are now also Colombian citizens.