Vale tailings dam breaks in Brazil\, no deaths reported

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) Neighbors of an iron ore mine belonging to Brazilian miner Vale SA were evacuated on Friday in southeastern Minas Gerais state, when a tailings dam ruptured, pouring out mud into the surrounding area, the company and authorities said.

Dramatic video shows rescue workers in a helicopter pulling people from the thick, deep mud.

Video also showed a vast area affected by the disaster.

Vale said early indications were that leaked tailings from the Corrego de Feijao mine had spread into its administrative area and to parts of the local community Vila Forteco, near the town of Brumadinho.

The local authorities and Vale said they had no confirmed reports of fatalities in the area.

The accident comes three years after Brazil's worst environmental disaster when a larger dam owned jointly by Vale and BHP Billiton broke in the same region, burying local homes and killing 19 people.

Friday's incident appeared to pale in comparison with the 2015 disaster in Mariana in Minas Gerais, when the tailings dam at the Samarco iron ore mine burst.Operations at Samarco remain halted over legal disputes relating to damages the rupture caused even after the companies settled a $5.28 billion civil lawsuit last year.