BOGOTA, Dec 8, (Xinhua): At least a dozen people were injured and several children missing after a dam burst in the rural southwest Colombian department of Cauca early Friday, the Colombian Civil Defense reported.

"It seems there was a mass movement that dammed the Aguas Claritas stream, and the resulting water flow swept away the homes in the area," Major Juan Carlos Sandoval, director of the Civil Defense in Cauca, was quoted by local media as saying.

Efforts to access the mountainous Micay Canyon area in the municipality of El Tambo for search and rescue have been hindered by landslides blocking roads, Sandoval said.

Among the injured is the father of the missing children. Carlos Carrillo, director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, announced plans to establish a Unified Command Post in Popayan to coordinate the search for the missing, giving priority to the safety of vulnerable populations amid heavy rains in the region.