Brazil cliff collapse kills at least seven

RIO DE JANEIRO • At least seven people were killed and three missing after a cliff collapsed onto boats carrying tourists on a lake in Brazil, the authorities said.

Rescue teams, including a dive squad and members of the Brazilian Navy, rushed to Furnas Lake in Minas Gerais state, where panicked tourists had watched helplessly as a large rock fragment broke off a ravine and plunged down, landing on three boats.

The latest official toll was seven dead and three missing, Minas Gerais firefighters' spokesman Pedro Aihara said on Saturday.

Another 32 were wounded, including nine who had to be hospitalised, the authorities said.

Firefighters had initially reported 20 people missing, but "that number was substantially reduced because a good part of the victims who were unaccounted for were people who moved by their own means to hospitals", Mr Aihara said in a voice message sent to reporters.

Tourists flock to see the rock walls, caverns and waterfalls that surround the green waters of Furnas Lake, formed by the hydroelectric dam of the same name.

Dramatic videos shared on social media networks caught the exact moment when the large rock fragment broke off a ravine and fell onto the three boats.

Another video posted on social media shows the minute before the fall, during which several people warn that "lots of stones are falling" and yell at the occupants of the other boats to move away from the cliff.

President Jair Bolsonaro posted some of these videos on his Twitter account and reported that "as soon as the unfortunate disaster occurred, the Brazilian Navy moved to the site to rescue victims and transport the injured".

Very heavy rain has fallen in recent days in south-eastern Brazil, making the collapse more likely, according to firefighters.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE