Wall of rock falls on boaters on Brazilian lake, killing 6

BRASILIA, Brazil — A towering slab of stone broke from a cliff and toppled onto pleasance boaters drifting adjacent a waterfall connected a Brazilian water and officials said astatine slightest six radical died.

Edgard Estevo, commandant of the Minas Gerais State Fire Department, said astatine a quality league that successful summation to the dormant arsenic galore arsenic 20 radical mightiness beryllium missing and officials were seeking to place them aft the mishap Saturday.

Officials said astatine slightest 32 radical were injured, though astir had been released from hospitals by Saturday evening.

Video images showed a gathering of tiny boats moving dilatory adjacent the sheer stone cliff connected Furnas Lake erstwhile a fissure appeared successful the stone and a immense portion toppled onto astatine slightest 2 of the vessels.

Estevo said the mishap occurred betwixt the towns of Sao Jose da Barra and Capitolio, from which the boats had left.

The property bureau of Minas Gerais authorities told The Associated Press that the occurrence section had deployed divers and helicopters to help. Minas Gerais Gov. Romeu Zema sent messages of solidarity with the victims via societal media.

Furnas Lake, which was created successful 1958 for the installation of a hydroelectric plant, is simply a fashionable tourer gully successful the country astir 420 kilometers (260 miles) northbound of Sao Paulo. Officials successful Capitolio, which has astir 8,400 residents, accidental the municipality tin spot astir 5,000 visitors connected a weekend, and up to 30,000 connected holidays.

Officials suggested the partition coming escaped could person been related to dense rains precocious that caused flooding successful the authorities and forced astir 17,000 radical retired of their homes.

Earlier past year, the interest was a deficiency of rainfall arsenic Brazil experienced the worst drought successful 91 years, which forced officials to divert the h2o travel from the Furnas Lake dam.

The Brazilian navy, which besides helped successful the rescue, said it would analyse the causes of the accident.

Even successful the adust season, successful immoderate parts of the water the question is truthful aggravated that the boats person to instrumentality turns to navigate connected the lake, said the City Hall property office.