300 missing, mass devastation in Brazil dam burst

Updated

Hundreds of people are missing after a dam at a Brazilian iron mine burst, devastating the mine itself and a local town.

The death toll is expected to be severe.

The mining site alone had some 300 workers, according to the company that owns it, and only about a third had been accounted for as of Saturday morning.

The torrent is said to have hit at lunchtime on Friday, and tore through the mine's cafeteria and offices.

This is not the first major disaster linked to the mine's owner, a corporation called Vale S.A.

Three years ago Brazil suffered the worst environmental catastrophe in its history when another dam burst at a mining project that Vale was partnered in poured toxic waste into a river, killing 19 people.

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