65 dead, 279 missing in Brazil dam collapse

BRUMADINHO, Brazil: Brazilian firefighters and Israeli rescue workers poked sticks into treacherous mud Monday (Tuesday in Manila) looking for bodies, as pressure mounted on the mining company responsible for a dam that burst and spilled a flood of iron ore waste. By late in the day, the death toll rose to 65, with 279 people still missing, said Lt. Col. Flavio Godinho of the Civil Defense Department in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. In a sign of the risks posed by the deep mud, Col. Alexandre Ferreira, a doctor with the military police of Minas Gerais, advised rescue crews, volunteers and journalists to take antibiotics to prevent cholera, the bacterial infection leptospirosis and other diseases. Officials said the death toll was expected to grow “exponentially,” since no had been rescued alive since Saturday. Search efforts were extremely slow because of the treacherous sea of reddish-brown mud that surged out when the mine tailings dam breached Friday afternoon.

AP