At least nine people were killed and 300 others missing after a dam collapsed in a southeastern mine on Friday amid fears of rising casualties, authorities said.

"We have nine dead and information indicating the loss of 300 people," a spokesman for the Brazilian fire brigade said. A previous toll of seven killed and some 150 missing, followed by a rise of 200 to 300.

"The police, the firefighters and the army" have done everything to try to rescue potential survivors, but we know there is now little chance of finding survivors, "said Romeo Zima, governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil's southeastern mining center, in the southeast. Corpses".

Rescue workers faced difficulty entering the town of Bromadinho and the surrounding area. The flood of roads, roads and farms, damaged many houses and destroyed some of them. Helicopters were used to rescue "many" people who were trapped in the mud in different places, the statement said.

In a separate statement, the Environment Ministry said a crisis cell had been formed and added that "the primary task of the federal government is to rescue the victims, provide support to the area and protect water tanks."

The dam, which collapsed, was set up to book the waste in an iron mine owned by Valley, and its collapse is the second such dam involving the company itself in just over three years.

Minas Gerais is still recovering from the collapse of a larger dam in November 2015, killing 19 people in Brazil's worst environmental disaster.

The collapse of the dam buried a village and led to the flow of toxic waste into one of the main rivers. The dam was owned by a joint venture between Vale and BHP Billiton.