The spectacular gorges of the Furnas Reservoir in Minas Gerais are a popular destination. But now a large part of a rock face came loose there, and ten tourists die.
Capitólio – The death toll has risen to ten following a disaster in Brazil in which a rock wall fell on tour boats. Divers found two people still missing, as the fire brigade announced on Sunday evening (local time).
In addition to the boat driver, the dead and missing are a married couple, their son and a grandson and other relatives and friends, said the regional police officer, Marcos Pimenta, at a press conference.
They came from the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo and were on the boat “Jesus”. The bodies were taken to the nearby town of Passos. Five dead were identified by Sunday evening. Because of her condition, identification was said to have been difficult for the coroners.
Popular destination
Video images from Saturday afternoon showed how some stones first fell from a cliff and then a large part of a rock came off. He tipped over on the excursion boats cruising below him on the Lago de Furnas in Capitólio. According to the fire department, two boats were hit directly and two more indirectly.
The lake, located around 400 kilometers north of the metropolis of São Paulo, with its gorges, is a popular excursion destination in the region. The extensive Furnas reservoir in the Rio Grande is also known as the “Sea of Minas”. The summer holidays are currently in Brazil, and the boat trip to the canyons is a classic.
It was still unclear how the accident could come about. The Brazilian Navy, which participated in the rescue operation, announced an investigation. In Minas Gerais it had recently rained heavily, as in the northeastern neighboring Bahia.
138 cities were on alert, the dam of the hydropower plant in Pará de Minas threatened to break on Sunday. dpa
