Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Topics: History, World News
Joshua Nair
In 1985, a devastating landslide triggered by a volcano eruption tore through Armero in Columbia. Among the thousands killed was a teenage girl whose image has become the haunting face of the tragedy.
On 13 November, 1985 the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted, triggering a volcanic mudflow which headed straight into nearby areas, including the Columbian town of Armero.
29,000 residents used to reside in Armero, but 20,000 of these perished as a result of the mudflow.
In the years since the disaster, the town has been abandoned.
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One of the victims of the tragedy has been immortalised with a harrowing photograph, as teenager Omayra Sánchez Garzón spent 60 hours trapped underneath volcanic mudflow known as lahars.
Harrowing TV footage of the teenager was also broadcast, showing how she could not move.
Garzón, then 13, was trapped in the debris of her own destroyed home, as rescuers desperately tried to free her legs for days.
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Eventually, they gave up and attempted to make her as comfortable as possible in her final moments.
A tyre was put around Garzón to keep her at the surface, while she was given sweets and soft drinks to keep her positive.
It was later discovered that her legs were pinned beneath the debris and that the arms of her aunt's body were still holding on to her.
On her third day of being trapped, Garzón started to hallucinate as a result of her situation.
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She told locals that she couldn't be late for a maths test at school, as her eyes turned black as a result of being so bloodshot.
Garzón's hands also turned white, as she uttered her final words at those filming her: "Mommy, I love you so much, daddy I love you, brother I love you."
On 16 November that year, three days after the disaster, she passed away, with her cause of death attributed to wither gangrene or hypothermia.
Photographer Frank Fournier snapped the photograph, which went on to become the World Press Photo of the Year winner in 1996.
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Taken in her final hours, the photographer said in an interview with the BBC that he was 'totally powerless in front of this little girl, who was facing death'.
"I felt that the only thing I could do was to report properly on the courage and the suffering and the dignity of the little girl and hope that it would mobilise people to help the ones that had been rescued and had been saved. I felt I had to report what this little girl had to go through."
Speaking about why he couldn't rescue her, he explained that it was 'impossible', while debates continue on whether he should have taken the picture or not.
"There was an outcry - debates on television on the nature of the photojournalist, how much he or she is a vulture," Fourneier recalled.
"But I felt the story was important for me to report and I was happier that there was some reaction; it would have been worse if people had not cared about it."
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He highlighted the 'lack of leadership' and with there being 'no evacuation plans' despite knowing the dangers of the nearby volcano.
The distinctive bloodshot look in the little girl's eyes was down to prolonged submersion in the water as well as the pressure on her body from the debris pinning her down.
These two factors combined are what made her eyes appear black in the photo.