At least six people have died and another 20 have disappeared by the detachment of part of a cliff on Lake Furnas in the city of Capitolio, located in the state of Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil.
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 the local press points out. A Twitter user shared the video of the shocking moment, recorded by some tourists.
The Fire Department spokesman, Lieutenant Pedro Aihara, has confirmed that there are around 40 troops displaced to the area and that they have an aircraft equipped with the ideal equipment in case the urgent evacuation of the victims is necessary.
Aihara has also confirmed the sinking of two of the boats, with 14 and 10 people on board each. The other two vessels that have been hit they had 10 and 8 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.
Leaving a private event in the capital, Brasilia, the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, 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 its condolences to the families of the deceased and has reported that the hospitals in the area are at full capacity. “We are in shock at this, and we sympathize with the victims, the injured and the dead. It was not a waterspoutIt 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, has demonstrated, who has claimed to be feeling “pain” for the “tragedy”.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
