The rains in Colombia this year have left at least 72 people dead, 700,000 victims and some 122,000 destroyed houses, the Colombian Red Cross said Sunday.

National Aid director of the Red Cross Carlos Ivan Marques said that the winter season, which in Colombia is characterized by strong rains, had affected some 400 municipalities in 27 of 32 departments of the country.

Meanwhile, Interior and Justice Minister German Vargas Lleras said that "we never have worse winter than this, it has been really hard."

The most affected departments are in the north, including Sucre, Cordoba, Atlantico, Bolivar, Antioquia, Magdalena and Guajira.

Due to this situation, the Red Cross in Colombia has started national plan of emergency to face the rains to come.