At least seven people have died and three others have disappeared for the detachment from part of a cliff on Furnas Lake in the city of Capitolio, located in the state of Minas Gerais, in the southeast of Brazil.
The Minas Gerais Fire Department initially reported 20 missing persons, but hours later, he substantially reduced that number after contacting a good part of those victims that had been rescued alive by other vessels.
The first call alerting of the event took place around 12:30 p.m. (local time), and the first information indicates that four boats have been hit by the rocks, of which two have sunk, injuring more than 30 people, as pointed out by the local press.
The Fire Department spokesman, Lieutenant Pedro Aihara, has confirmed that there are around 40 troops displaced to the area and they have an aircraft equipped with suitable equipment in case the urgent evacuation of the victims is necessary.
Video: rocha detaches and fell on boats in lake no Capitólio (MG)
Bombers from Minas Gerais formed for the region, which will also include air support
Leia: https://t.co/1DlQ5Io4Xx pic.twitter.com/xr4Z9QQQEi
– Metropoles (@Metropoles) January 8, 2022
Aihara has also confirmed the sinking of two of the boats, with fourteen and ten people on board each. The other two boats that have been hit had eighteen people inside, according to the newspaper ‘Folha de Sao Paulo’.
The commander of the Minas Gerais Fire Department, Edgard Estevo da Silva, has confirmed that there are still several missing people and that search and rescue efforts are being carried out based on information provided by witnesses and local tourism agencies.
At the exit of a private event in the capital, Brasilia, the president of the country, Jair bolsonaro, He has called the event “fatality”, although he has assured not to have found out what happened until his departure from the meeting.
The mayor of Capitolio, Cristinao Silva, has conveyed his condolences to the families of the deceased and has reported that the hospitals in the area are at full capacity.
Related news
“We are in shock at this, and we sympathize with the victims, the wounded and the dead. It was not a waterspout, it was a stone displacement that hit some boats, “he said in a video posted on his social networks.
In the same vein, the governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, who has assured to be feeling “pain” by the “tragedy”.
.
ttn-24