"They have recovered 30 bodies and rescue operations are continuing," said Jorge Humberto Salazar, a spokesman with the government of the department of Antioquia.

Some 400 rescuers have labored since Sunday's disaster, as hope diminished of finding survivors alive.

President Juan Manuel Santos was due to visit the rescue operations on Tuesday as the first funerals of victims of the tragedy were set to take place later in the day.

Officials said a wall of mud slid down a sodden hillside on Sunday, burying about three dozen homes near Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city, some 245 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Bogota.

The tragedy occurred after a hillside perched above the La Gabriela neighborhood in the town of Bello gave way.

Colombia has endured the worst downpours in decades which have left nearly 200 people dead and 1.5 million homeless from flooding and landslides.

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