A dam has burst at an iron ore mine in south-eastern Brazil, and is thought to have killed at least 15 people, submerging nearby homes and burying vehicles.
Forty-five people were still missing after the disaster in Minas Gerais state, a local union told the G1 news portal. The mine is operated by Samarco, a joint venture between the Anglo-Australian mining giant, BHP Billiton, and the Brazilian company Vale.
Video footage on the G1 website showed houses of a village destroyed by muddy waters that surged down valleys in the mountainous region.
There was no official confirmation on the number of dead and missing. The civil defence agency of Minas Gerais state said one body had been recovered.
The city council told Brazil’s Globo News it was evacuating about 600 people to higher ground from the village of Bento Rodrigues, about 7km (just over 4 miles) beneath the dam that burst, which was flooded as a result of the accident.
Samarco said in a statement it had not yet determined why the dam burst or the extent of the disaster at its Germano mine near the town of Mariana.
BHP Billiton said in a statement that it was “concerned for the safety of employees and the local community ... We are in the process of obtaining more details from Samarco Mineracao”.
Vale directed media questions to Samarco.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/