Watch the shocking new video that shows the beginning of the mining disaster in Brazil

A new film reveals the first moments of the rupture of a mining waste dam of the Vale company in southeastern Brazil, a week ago, which killed 115 people.

Local television has released an impressive series of safety videos that show the exact moment when the huge waste barrage collapses and the mud tsunami slips away destroying the vegetation and facilities of the Córrego do Feijao mine.

The videos are in the hands of the rescuers, said Pedro Aihara, spokesman for the fire department of Minas Gerais, but decided not to divulge them "so as not to cause widespread panic" in the hours that followed 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 at this moment "248 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).

Most of the dead and missing were working in the Vale mine and many of them were lunching at the company's canteen, one of the first structures hit by mud flooding.

Despite the large number of missing persons, the number of confirmed deaths should remain stable – 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. (Scope)