MARIANA, Brazil (AP) – Searchers used small airplanes and a drone Saturday to look for 19 people confirmed as missing following the burst of two dams inside an iron ore mine, while authorities lowered the official death count to one.
The Fire Department said officials were now not sure that a second body, which was found 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the site of the accident, was a victim. It said the list of missing included 13 mine workers and six residents of a nearby village that was overrun with mud and water.
Bras Azevedo, secretary of social defense in the nearby city of Mariana, told The Associated Press that authorities had to be cautious in sorting out exactly how many people were missing or dead. “There are still people in isolated areas; they could be the ones we are looking for,” he said.
The flood of mud came without warning Thursday afternoon when two dams breached for reasons that investigators had not yet determined.
People in the small village of Bento Rodrigues downhill from the dams said a deafening clap was the only hint they got that a sea of viscous, clay-red mud was about to hit. The sound of the two dams bursting at the Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil’s central Minas Gerais state sent the approximately 600 residents running for higher ground.