At least 34 dead and 400 missing as a result of a mudslide in Brazil

At least 34 people are dead and more than 400 are still missing after breaking a dam the Vale mine in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, where firefighters have already saved 366 survivors 23 of whom had to be transferred to different health centers, official sources said Saturday.

The Brazilian newspaper Folha said on its website that the Brazilian state government of Minas Gerais has reported that the number of bodies found after the destruction of the waste dam of the Vale mining company to Brumadinho it stood at 34 and confirmed the discovery of a bus with company employees, none of whom survived.

Firefighters reported that of the 366 people rescued, 221 were employees of Vale Mining Company and 145 subcontracted workers. According to the lists communicated by the company, it still lacks 400.

On the other hand, the state government has indicated that eight of the bodies have already been identified and that the rains this afternoon forced to suspend until tomorrow at 4 o'clock in the morning, the monitoring tasks of the dam 6 and to draw water from this reservoir by pumping.

"As it is a place of difficult access and that we need a special mechanism to access the structure and evacuate these victims, we still have not closed the number of dead, but this number will increase ", reported the fire department.

The rain also increased concern over the risk of overflow of Dam 6, this water, where equipment was installed to carry out the drainage.

"There is hope and the fire department will work tirelessly to examine the entire area with the possibility of living casualties and until the last moment to locate the missing victims," ​​he said. said fire chief commander Edgar Estevo. da Silva.

In addition, the President of Brazil, Jair BolsonaroHe flew aboard a helicopter over the area covered by the mudslide and observed the situation in the 39,000-inhabitant town, partially covered by the quagmire, according to Ansa.

Then the president met at Cofins airport in Belo Horizonte, with the crisis committee composed of several ministers, and signed a decree to create the Ministerial Council for Disaster Response Oversight, which will be coordinated by the Minister of the Civil House, according to Bolsonaro himself on Twitter.

The Brazilian mining company Vale this morning reported a list of 411 names of staff with whom it still could not get in touch in the city of Brumadinho, and said that "it has made available 40 ambulances, 800 beds and a helicopter to facilitate rescue "and who works with the fire and civil defense corps with employees of the mining company and volunteers.

He also said that "he proceeds to drain dam 6 with the help of pumps, in order to reduce the amount of water, monitoring the structure every hour to determine its stability" which led the Civil Defense to evacuate the area. .