The new deaths occurred Tuesday. A mudslide in a slum on the outskirts of Bogota claimed four of the lives, the national director of the Red Cross, Carlos Marquez, said.

The organization estimated that 1.2 million people in Colombia had been affected by the record rains, with 1,700 homes destroyed and nearly 3,000 damaged. Secondary roads in most of the country have also been hit.

The storms were being blamed on atmospheric disturbances from La Nina, a phenomenon in which cooler-than-normal water circulates in the Pacific Ocean around the equator.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday made an appeal for international help to cope with the situation.

"We are doing all we can, but it's not enough and we need help from everybody, from private companies to international aid, to mitigate the suffering of so many of our people," he said.

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