Firefighters in Brazil are calling for tens of thousands of people to be evacuated after a town was hit by a deadly mudslide that was triggered by a mining dam that ruptured.
Heavy rain has added to concerns a second dam in the area could also fail.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
Sirens began blaring before sunrise,... triggered by dangerously high water levels at a tailings dam near an iron ore mine in the southeastern town of Brumadinho.
Friday's burst dam unleashed a huge mudslide,... burying mining facilities and nearby homes.
Firefighters called on Sunday for the evacuation of some 24-thousand people,... as they fear a second dam nearby could collapse.
Over 300 people have been reported missing so far,... with the confirmed death toll surpassing 40.
Families and friends mourning their lost loved ones are being forced to up sticks and leave their homes.
"I lost many friends, many colleagues. I am very sad, devastated. There are no words to speak because the pain is so great, I lost so many friends, my colleagues from haciendas lost cattle, they lost everything, everything, everything, everything."
The disaster is deadlier than the 2015 tailings dam collapse at an iron ore mine less than 100 kilometers away,... when mining waste spilled into a remote region, killing 19 people, and burying a small village.
The spill contaminated a major river in what is still Brazil's worst environmental disaster on record.
The Brazilian government has ordered Vale, the company that owns the mining complex at the site of Friday's dam burst, to halt operations and it has frozen 1-point-6 billion dollars of the company's assets to pay for the damages caused so far.
What exactly caused the dam to burst remains unclear,... as officials say a recent inspection did not indicate any issues with the structure.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
