Rescue helicopters pluck survivors from the thick sludge, amid official fears the number of dead will continue to grow.
Up to nine people have died and as many as 300 are missing after a dam burst at an iron ore mine in Brazil.
The disaster happened near the city of Belo Horizonte in the Minas Gerais state, unleashing a torrent of mud towards the town of Brumadinho in the south east of the country on Friday evening.
The fire brigade has confirmed hundreds of people are missing, including 200 workers from the mine owned by Vale.
The mayor of Brumadinho, Avimar de Melo Barcelos says nine bodies have so far been recovered from the mud.
There are fears there will be more as rescue and recovery teams dig through feet of sludge.
Vale boss Fabio Schvartsman said of the 300 employees working at the time, about 100 had been accounted for, and rescue efforts were under way to determine what had happened to the others, he said.
He told a news conference that "the principal victims were our own workers", adding that the restaurant where many ate "was buried by the mud at lunchtime".
Homes and vehicles were swept away after the river of mud gushed across roads and through vegetation and farmland.
Helicopters plucked people covered in mud from the area, including a woman with a fractured hip, who was among eight injured people taken to hospital.
Families in low-lying areas were told to evacuate their homes, the authorities said.
The mud is full of mining waste and there are fears that huge areas of land could be contaminated.
Fire brigade spokesman Lieutenant Pedro Aihara said: "Our main worry now is to quickly find out where the missing people are."
Mr Aihara said two lower dams gave way after the bigger one burst.
Josiele Rosa Silva Tomas, president of Brumadinho residents association, said: "I've never seen anything like it.
"It was horrible... the amount of mud that took over."
The region is still recovering from collapse of a larger dam in 2015 that killed 19 people.
In that incident, a dam owned jointly by the Samarco Mineracao SA venture, Vale and BHP Billiton broke in the same region of Minas Gerais state, burying local homes in what was considered Brazil's worst environmental disaster.
It left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish.
Mr Schvartsman said what happened on Friday was "a human tragedy much larger than the tragedy of Mariana, but probably the environmental damage will be less".
Mr Bolsonaro, who took office on 1 January, planned to tour the area by helicopter on Saturday.
He said: "We will take all the possible steps to minimise the suffering of families and victims."
The far-right leader had campaigned on pledges to kick-start Brazil's economy, including cutting red tape for mining and other industries.
However, environmentalists argue the latest disaster highlights a lack of regulation.
Greenpeace said the latest spill "is a sad consequence of the lessons not learned by the Brazilian government and the mining companies responsible for the tragedy with Samarco dam, in Mariana, also controlled by Vale".
Former environmental minister and presidential candidate Marina Silva tweeted: "History repeats itself. It's unacceptable that government and mining companies haven't learned anything."
Comments
Post a Comment