Hundreds missing in Brazil after dam collapses

Seven bodies had been recovered by late Friday, according to a statement from the governor's office of Minas Gerais state. But the fear was that there would be many more as rescue and recovery teams dug through feet of mud.

Saturday, 26th January 2019

Workers with Brazilian mining company Vale were eating lunch when a dam that held back waste collapsed, burying the restaurant and surrounding community in reddish-brown sludge, killing at least seven people and leaving up to 200 missing.

The status of the workers and others in the city of Brumadinho was unknown late Friday, hours after what President Jair Bolsonaro and other officials were already describing as a "tragedy."

Vale CEO Fabio Schvartsman said he did not know what caused the collapse. Of the 427 workers who were on hand when the dam collapsed, 279 had been accounted for, the company said in a statement.

"The principal victims were our own workers," Schvartsman told a news conference Friday evening, adding that the restaurant where many ate "was buried by the mud at lunchtime."

After the dam collapsed in the afternoon, parts of Brumadinho were evacuated, and firefighters rescued people by helicopter and ground vehicles. Local television channel TV Record showed a helicopter hovering inches off the ground as it pulled people covered in mud out of the waste.

Photos showed rooftops poking above an extensive field of the mud, which also cut off roads. The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and a Vale administrative office, where employees were present.

"I've never seen anything like it," Josiele Rosa Silva Tomas, president of Brumadinho resident's association, told The Associated Press by phone Friday night. "It was horrible...the amount of mud that took over."

Silva Tomas said she was awaiting news of her cousin, and many she knew were trying to get news of loved ones.

Firefighters put out a list of 187 people who had been rescued throughout the afternoon.

More than 100 firefighters were on the scene and another 200 were expected to arrive Saturday.

Bolsonaro, who assumed office Jan. 1, said he lamented the accident and sent three cabinet ministers to the area.

Bolsonaro planned to tour the area by helicopter on Saturday. The far-right leader campaigned on promises to jump-start Brazil's economy, in part by deregulating mining and other industries.

Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored a lack of regulation.

(Agency inputs)