this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm. rescuers scramble to reach survivors in the colombia mudslides. at least 250 people have been killed. a state of emergency is declared. six arrests are made by police investigating an alleged hate crime attack on a 17—year—old kurdish—iranian asylum seeker in south london. this was a cowardly and despicable attack. this is a young man who's come to this country to seek sanctuary and it appears that he's been set upon. the writer, broadcaster and civil liberties campaigner darcus howe has died at the age of 7a. university student lydia wilkinson pays tribute to her mother and younger brother, who were stabbed to death in their west midlands home last week. also in the next hour — victory for oxford in the 163rd men's boat race. oxford, in the 163rd boat race, will

reclaim the thames, champions once more. the dark blues take the title back from cambridge after leading for most of the race. earlier in the women's boat race. the finish line calls. it is victory for cambridge, and what a victory. cambridge triumphed in a record time after oxford got off to a dreadful start. celtic have won the scottish premier league with eight games to spare after beating hearts 5—0 at tynecastle. and the largest underground city of its kind found in an archaeological dig in turkey on the travel show in half an hour on bbc news. good evening. rescue teams in colombia are continuing to search

through tonnes of mud and debris for anyone who survived devastating mudslides in the amazon basin. at least 200 people have been killed, but with hundreds of others injured or missing, the colombian president says its impossible to know what the eventual death toll will be. the torrent of mud engulfed the town of mocoa, where rescue efforts are being hampered by bad weather. richard lister reports. mocoa is a place of mud and misery. when the rolling wall of water and debris rushed through here on friday night, it swept away houses, cars, trees and people. whole families died here. the painstaking search for survivors is continuing. rescue workers moving quietly through flattened neighbourhoods hoping for signs of life in the wreckage. nothing here. with every hour that passes, hopes of finding more

people alive diminish. within hours of the deluge, message boards went up listing the dead and the missing. many of those unaccounted for are children. "we are searching for a baby", she says, "a little baby, we cannot find him anywhere". this man has lost his daughter. "i hope somebody has her", he says, "she's called luisa". closest to the river, the streets are now boulder fields, full of people trying to retrieve what they can of their lives. the shock of this disaster is still sinking in. the rains that caused this flood were unusually heavy, but deforestation upstream played a part, too. this town of 40,000 people is still without power or fresh water. the homeless need housing, the infrastructure needs to be

restored, and the wreckage cleared. deep in the amazon basin, mocoa was hard to reach before. now, with roads and bridges washed away, the challenge is even greater. richard lister, bbc news. dimitri o'donnell is in bogota and we can talk to him now about the current situation. thank you forjoining us. tell us what you are hearing about the latest attempts to find survivors. well, the rescue operation is well underway at this stage in place—macro and the priority remains the search and rescue operation to pull people alive from the wreckage and that will remain the case for the next 48 hours. as you can imagine ona the next 48 hours. as you can imagine on a disaster of this scale, said to be the worst natural disaster in colombia since 1994, the machinery of the state has been fully deployed to place—macro by

president santos. 1300 personnel are in the town, the city right now, which includes army, police personnel, civil defence, airforce personnel, civil defence, airforce personnel and they are all coordinating their efforts to try to get to those people who most need it. there are still 300 people at least still missing in mocoa. the effo rts least still missing in mocoa. the efforts so far have been patchy in trying to get people out of the rubble and the mud. the weather has improved. it is not raining right now, it is dry and bright and that is certainly helping conditions but what is hampering them is the fact that still so many roads are blocked and closed off and as well as that, the power is still down in parts of mocoa. it is still quite a tough operation to rescue people right 110w. operation to rescue people right now. how prone to mudslides and weather of this type is this part of colombia? it is very prone to

landslides and mudslides. this part of the country is known for them. what has happened, though, in the past weekend since friday night was unprecedented in terms of its scale. what really caught the authorities by surprise, even though they had given out a warning signal to some residents in mocoa, was the speed and intensity of the reins on friday night. over the course of three hours, a third of mocoa's monthly rainfall fell in three hours, which is about ten days worth of rain. everything was swept away when the three rivers break their banks all at once and that has led to all of this devastation that you can see, covering 17 different types of neighbourhoods in mocoa, five of them completely destroyed. listening to the survivors are stories that have been coming out, they have been very sad and touched the hearts of many colombians, one mother who was not at home on friday night, when the avalanche of mud struck the

village and demolished home but her three daughters were and they were aged, four, 13 and 22 and the eldest girl was pregnant and she has not been able to find them since friday night. she has been seen and pictured and interviewed, digging through the rubble, desperately trying to call her eldest daughter on her cellphone and of course, so far, there has been no response. maria's story has touched the hearts of many people and she has become the human face of the tragedy. 300 people like her are still looking for bella once. she says she will not give up, her daughters are all that she had, she said they had big greens and she's going to stay there until she finds them. that is just one story, as i said, of many people still looking for their loved ones today in mocoa. sadly, there will be lots more like that. thank you for joining us. apologies for any of the dropouts in the sound of the webcam connection. the prime minister has told the people of gibraltar that the uk would never allow it to slip from british control against their will.

in a telephone call aimed at reassuring gibraltar about its future after brexit, theresa may said britain was steadfast in its commitment. here's our political correspondent iain watson. legend has it, when the barbary apes leave gibraltar, the british won't be far behind. well, they are still here, but the 30,000 human residents of the rock who want to remain british are worried that the spanish government could soon have more say over their lives. the eu has said that after brexit, london will have to talk directly to spain about the territory's future. a former conservative leader said the uk's commitment to gibraltar would be no different than its commitment to the falklands. another woman prime minister sent a task force halfway across the world to protect another small group of british people against another spanish—speaking country. but don't panic. four days after triggering the brexit process, there is no serious talk of conflict with a nato ally. in fact, spain appears more

interested in talking about trade than seizing territory, perhaps raising questions about gibraltar‘s low tax regime and its policing of cross—border contra band. the bbc has been told that gibraltar did ask downing street specifically to mention its interests in a letter the prime minister sent to the european union to trigger the whole brexit process. well, of course, we know that did not happen. but today, theresa may got on the telephone to the most senior politician in gibraltar and pledged her steadfast support, notjust for the rock's sovereignty, but also for its economy. and the chief minister of gibraltar seemed reassured. when the time comes, we will be making the right decisions with the prime minister leading us in those negotiations, which will be in the interests of the people of gibraltar and in pursuit of their wishes. but labour say the brexit process still poses an economic risk to gibraltar. how will the deal that we come to with the european union affect the gibraltar economy?

so to what extent will they have access to the single market and the customs union, because their economy could be strangled if the negotiations go wrong. this is just the start of the process of leaving the european union. downing street has moved to defuse any row with gibraltar, but difficult negotiations with the european union and with spain still lie ahead. iain watson, bbc news, westminster. and we'll find out how this story is covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30pm and 11:30pm this evening in the papers. our guestsjoining me tonight are jim waterson, who's the political editor of buzzfeed, and the public appointments adviserjacqui francis. four men and two women have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following an attack on an asylum seeker at a bus stop in south london on friday night. the 17—year—old, who's kurdish—iranian, was subjected to what detectives say was a savage beating. simonjones has

simon jones has been simonjones has been to the scene in croydon today. bus stop down the road. the 17—year—old, a kurdish iranian, was chased from this bus stop down the road. when he fell to the ground, the police say he suffered repeated blows to the head. he was left with a fractured skull and a blood clot on the brain. kana varathan heard the screams. normally, the friday night, they are always making noise. then it sounded really funny. then looking out the window, the group of people beating one person. some people tried to intervene, others dialled 999. the police are treating the attack as a hate crime. the local mp, who is also the housing minister, told me he was appalled. i described them on twitter as scum. i think these are cowardly, and a despicable attack, and i hope we find the people responsible and they'll face the full force of our justice system. police patrols have been stepped up to try to reassure people this is not typical for the area, but this is a community in shock. it is very appalling really.

you expect people to appreciate one another here. this is a diverse society. yesterday, it was a shock. because i have got my two daughters, a boy and my wife is coming to school then. it's not good, it's not safe. tonight, one response to what police have condemned as a savage attack. simonjones, bbc simon jones, bbc news, simonjones, bbc news, croydon. the writer, broadcaster and civil liberties campaigner darcus howe has died at the age of 74. born in trinidad, he moved to the uk to study law and campaigned for black rights for more than 50 years. in 1981, he organised the black people's march after the new cross fire in which 13 black teenagers died. later, he became chairman of the notting hill carnival and made a number of television programmes about the lives of black britons. the poet linton kwesijohnson, a lifelong friend of darcus howe, has

been telling us how important he was for the black civil rights movement in the uk. darcus was a fearless warrior, in the struggle against racial injustice in this country. people talking about the civil rights movement, there was no civil rights movement, there was no civil rights movement, there was no civil rights movement in this country. there were anti—racist struggles that were being waged an darcus were at the —— was at the heart of that, at the —— was at the heart of that, at the —— was at the heart of that, at the centre of it. he was one of the mangrove nine, a group of nine activists who were charged with affray and incitement to riot and all kinds of things back in 1970 and he defended himself in court and w011. he defended himself in court and won. he was very articulate, a very bright man, a very able journalist. he was the editor of the race today journal and i was a member of that collective. i first knew darcus when

i was collective. i first knew darcus when iwasa collective. i first knew darcus when i was a youth in the black panther movement during the black power days. he was an activist in the black panthers and after that, the black panthers and after that, the black panthers and after that, the black panthers work together with the rest of the collective. he was very important, you know? when we had the black people's day of action in1981, had the black people's day of action in 1981, when we mobilised something like 15,000 people to demonstrate against the killing of 13 black children by racists in new cross, it was known as the new cross massacre, da rcus was known as the new cross massacre, darcus was at the forefront of organising the black people's day of action. he was very important as an activist in our communities. linton kwesijohnson, friend activist in our communities. linton kwesi johnson, friend and fellow activist of darcus howe, who died at the age of 74. the headlines on bbc news: a state of emergency is declared in colombia after more than 250 people are killed in mudslides — many more are missing. six arrests are made by police investigating an alleged hate crime attack on a 17—year—old kurdish—iranian asylum

seeker in south london. the writer, broadcaster and civil liberties campaigner darcus howe has died at the age of 74. sport now and a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. indeed, lots of fun and games in the boat race but we start with football because it is only the 2nd of april but celtic have clinched their sixth consecutive scottish premiership title this afternoon after beating hearts 5—0. they have done it with eight games to spare, equalling the record set by rangers 70 years ago. brendan rodgers side are now 25 points clear of second place aberdeen. celtic started their league campaign here last summer and they have wrapped it up and wrapped

it up in some style. a 5—0 win against hearts, pretty much indicative of their season as a whole. they have been ruthless, efficient, they have been hungry under brendan rodgers. yes, there will be talk about a lack of competition in scottish football but ta ke competition in scottish football but take nothing away from this celtic side under the former liverpool manager, a massive gap between them and aberdeen in second place, and they have finished this with eight games to spare. in terms of their ambitions between now and the end of the season, they have two particular ambitions, the scottish cup would com plete ambitions, the scottish cup would complete the domestic treble and they have the chance to go on unbeaten and become the invincible. the way celtic are playing, today and this season, you would not bet against it. in the premier league arsenal came from behind twice to own a 2—2 draw at home to manchester city. leroy sane scored early for city. leroy sane scored early for city and theo walcott equalised just

before half—time but sergio aguero replied two minutes later. shkodran mustafi got the arsenal equaliser just after half—time. it ends a run of two straight defeats for the gunners but it leaves arsene wenger‘s side seven points outside the top four. it was a game where we were not completely at our best on the fluency and the technical front because we were under pressure, but we showed strong mental resources and we refused to lie down against a team who is always dangerous going forward. at the end of the day we got a point that will help us, even if mathematically it is not the best solution for both teams. but for us it was important today as well. it ended goalless between swansea and middlesbrough. swansea had the best of the chances at the liberty stadium but couldn't find a way through. rudy gestede perhaps should have won it for boro in stoppage time but his header went wide of the post. swansea remain 17th and

middlesbrough stay second bottom. oxford have won the 173rd boat race beating cambridge byjust over oxford have won the 163rd boat race beating cambridge byjust over a length on the thames this evening. after defeat last yea r, oxford pulled away in the opening couple of minutes, and whilst cambridge never lost touch, the advantage proved insurmountable. it's oxford's fourth win in the last five years and their 80th overall. the women's race was effectively over after the very first stroke, when oxford's rebecca esseltein got her oar stuck — and as she battled to regain control, cambridge sprinted off to win with ease. it's the first time since 2012 that the light blues have won the race — and comes a year after they almost sank. defending champions saracens will be the only british side in the semifinals of rugby union's champions cup after they beat glasgow 38—13 at allianz park. they ran in four tries, two from former england wing chris ashton.

they'll now travel to dublin to play munster. clermont auvergne beat toulon to set up a last four tie against leinster. roger federer has claimed his third title of 2017 with another final victory over rafael nadal in the final of the miami open. after winning at the australian open and in indian wells, the 18—time grand slam champion beat rafa nadal in straight sets in miami. it's his 26th masters series title and he'll move up to fourth in the world rankings as a result. world number one mark selby has beaten wales's mark williams 10—8 to claim the china open in beijing. victory for williams would have given him an automatic qualification spot in this month's world championship in sheffield, but instead he'll now have to play three best—of—19 matches to get there. it's selby‘s fourth ranking event win of the season. that's all sport for now.

i'll have more in the next hour. more now on the death of broadcaster and civil liberties campaigner da rcus and civil liberties campaigner darcus howe who has died at the age of 74. with us is a friend and fellow activist. thank you for joining us. , how did you get to know darcus howe? how did i get to know darcus howe? how did i get to know him? i hadjust know darcus howe? how did i get to know him? i had just finished university in britain and i was fumbling around london looking for jobs and a gang of us were sitting in an underground train, and this very handsome looking fellow comes across, with a newspaper called the black eagle and asked if we wanted to buy one, "fight the british state". we said ok and we bought one. i think we were going home from a hyde park lecture. my friend said,

"thank you", and he asked me if i wa nted "thank you", and he asked me if i wanted one and i said, "i will share it with him", and he said, "will you share the same jail sentence?" you knew what you are getting from the beginning. yes, and then i subsequently joined the black panther movement in britain which consisted mainly of west indians and west indian youth but within the leadership there were some asians and theoreticians, all sorts, and one of the first things we did was joina one of the first things we did was join a mangrove demonstration which was a demonstration against the harassment by the police of the mangrove harassment by the police of the ma ng rove restau ra nt harassment by the police of the mangrove restaurant in notting hill. when that happens, the british state acted a bit stupidly, arresting nine people and soaring very big charges against them. if you accuse somebody throwing a stone at a policeman, well, that is one thing, but they

accused them of affray and conspiracy to undermine the state and all sorts of things. how significant was the mangrove nine trial and darcus howe's role in it? he was the star of the trial because he decided to defend himself. and there he was, you know, he loved it, he loved every moment of standing up in the box, and questioning people. he had been trained as a lawyer. he could do it. i had thejob, the humblejob could do it. i had thejob, the humble job of summarising for the black panther movement, the day's events. two or three of the defendants were from the black panther‘s central core membership. so we used to write up this trial all the time and suddenly, even in the bulletins that i wrote up every evening up of the trial, darcus emerged as the articulate style. he spent 50 years as an activist. what

did he feel his real achievements had been in all that time? darcus never boasted about it. he boasted about all sorts of things but never about all sorts of things but never about his achievements as such. but ican about his achievements as such. but i can tell you that i thought he was one of the bravest, one of the most courageous, and one of the most significant activists for black people's rights in this country. since immigration started, say, in the 50s and 60s, that is post—colonial immigration to this country, blacks, asians, all sorts came to this country. darcus was the most... well, not self—effacing in a modest kind of way but a very modest leader, who would speak directly to the people and when we got to the black panther movement, it was he who inspired us to start talking straight and campaigning rather than writing articles about race and class, or in fact having ambitions

tojoin the class, or in fact having ambitions to join the labour party by saying the labour party ought to let, you know, black people in and so bored. we weren't fighting that battle. we we re we weren't fighting that battle. we were fighting battles on the ground, education, schooling, housing, employment, and it was campaign after campaign and it was notjust demonstrations, it was practical things, like after we left the black panther movement, it broke up. we immediately, he immediately started, or was appointed to be the editor of race today which was a separate magazine, which wasn't a magazine like writing theoretical pieces about race and class. we actually went into the east end of london and squatted 400 houses. briefly and finally, what do you think his legacy will be? to many people, he was known as a broadcaster who made many wonderful programmes but in a nutshell, what is his legacy? well,

i think it has to be broken into two. first as a political activist in the black panther movement, and in race today, the magazine and the campaigning powerful. when i became commissioning editor chalifour, i knew him for 20 years and knew he was one of the bestjournalists around and gave him the of running the programme that added a new dimensional needs to chalifour, and then he too got the job with devils advocate which we formulated together. —— of devils advocate. it was to make a challenge. it was a kind of challenge, to my mind, and of course i would say so, to my mind it was multiculturalism as it should be, with a black presenter challenging people about the general issues, not saying, "we are ticking

boxes by being on screen". thank you for joining boxes by being on screen". thank you forjoining us. lydia wilkinson has paid tribute to her mother and younger brother who were stabbed to death in their home in stourbridge earlier this week. she laid flowers outside the house, accompanied by her boyfriend. she said her mother tracey had always put others before herself. 23—year—old aaron barley, of no fixed address, has been charged with their murders and with the attempted murder of lydia's father, peter. he is known to the family and will appear in court again in the morning. sangita myska reports. lydia wilkinson arrived at the family home where her mother and 13—year—old brother were killed clutching flowers. she laid them at the makeshift memorial outside the property alongside floral tributes left by friends and family. each message, including her own, described how much mother and son were loved and would be missed. overcome with grief, she was comforted by her boyfriend.

the house in stourbridge remains a crime scene. it was here that lydia's mother and brother, pierce, seen on the left—hand side of this photo, were fatally attacked. theirfather, 47—year—old peter wilkinson, was left critically injured but is now in a stable condition in hospital. today, a 23—year—old homeless man appeared at court in birmingham where he was remanded in custody, charged with murder and attempted murder. in a brief written statement, lydia wilkinson described her brother is a fun—loving boy and her mother as a woman who would always put others first. she asked that the family be given privacy during a distressing time. sangita myska, bbc news. two dogs have been killed by armed police and two others seized after a group of dogs were allegedly

dangerously out of control in bolton. police were called to reports of a number of pit bull type animals on the loose around the queens park area this morning. two people have been injured and a man has been arrested. yunus malli reports. armed officers from greater manchester police, along with the emergency services, where deployed here to queen's park oval than just after 10:20am. there were reports that six pit bull type dogs were dangerously out of control and that at least two people had been attacked. in the operation that followed, two dogs were seized and another two were shot dead just a short distance away from here. all of this happened in front of witnesses. police were everywhere. i thought maybe they are looking for someone thought maybe they are looking for someone else, thought maybe they are looking for someone else, you thought maybe they are looking for someone else, you know? but i didn't know what happened. so somebody told me they shoot the dogs. that's all. the person was trying to control the dog, so the police did not have any choice. they shot the dog. police

say a 60—year—old woman was bitten on the hand and a man was also injured on the leg. they also added that a 38—year—old man was arrested on suspicion of affray and allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in public. the pit bull is one of a number of breed banned under the dangerous dogs act. in a statement, greater manchester police said today that the officers acted with our number one priority in mind, to protect people and prevent them from harm. another dog is still on the loose. police are advising people not to approach the animal. yunus malli, bbc north west tonight, bolton. the parents of a baby with a rare genetic condition have reached a £1.2 million crowdfunding target for him to have pioneering treatment in the us. connie yates and chris gard's son charlie, who is nearly eight months old, is receiving 24—hour treatment at london's great ormond street hospital. doctors say he should move to a palliative—care regime,

but his parents are challenging them in court to keep him on life support. time for the weather with louise. good evening. it has been a sunday to put a smile on ourfaces, lots of sunshine, drive for most of us. little bit of nuisance ploughed across the northeast and some odd isolated showers nuisance cloud in the south—west by the end of the day but clear skies tonight will allow temperatures to fall away. a chilly night to come, with maybe a touch of patchy mist and fog and maybe temperatures in more rural, sheltered areas, low enough for a touch of light frost. but the cloud and wind gathers into the far north—west, an indication of what is to come on monday. after a chilly start, mist and fog lifting the way for decent spells sunshine for most. whether france pushing in from the west will bring showreel outbreaks of rain