Shocking: a new video shows the beginning of the mining disaster in Brazil

Local TV has released a shocking series of security camera videos that show the exact moment when the huge garbage dump shatters and the mud tsunami slips by devastating vegetation and the facilities of the Córrego do Feijao mine.

The videos are in the hands of the rescuers, Pedro said Aihara, spokesman for the firefighters of Minas Gerais, but decided not to disclose them "in order not to cause widespread panic in the population" in the hours following the tragedy.

The images helped them to badyze the path traveled by the waste and to better determine the areas of research. At the beginning of the spill, the tide could have reached 70 or 80 km per hour, Aihara said.

We have right now248 missing, 115 dead and 71 identified bodies "said Lieutenant-Colonel of the Civil Defense of Minas Gerais, Flávio Godinho, who coordinates the rescue operations.

The landslide mourns Brumadinho, a town of 39,000 inhabitants located 60 km from Belo Horizonte (capital of Minas).

The majority of the dead and missing were working in the Vale Mine and many of them were lunching at the canteen of the company, one of the first structures hit by mud flooding.

Despite the large number of missing persons, the number of confirmed deaths is expected to remain stable in the coming days – or increase very gradually – because of the difficulty of accessing the bodies, which requires "more delicate excavation work"Aihara explained.

Research continues "for an indefinite period", he added.

The tragedy, whose environmental impacts are still unknown, occurs only three years after a similar tragedy in the same region, in a Samarco mine (Vale and Australian BHP joint venture).

The disaster that hit the city of Mariana in 2015 resulted in fewer deaths (19), but devastated entire ecosystems and became the worst environmental disaster in the history of Brazil.