'Just 25 minutes to get out alive:' Brazilian villagers flee as two dams burst and destroy villages

Authorities have said 23 people, including 13 miners, are still missing following the floods

The remains of Bento Rodrigues (AP)

Brazilian villagers were told they had just 25 minutes to get out alive before a gigantic mud slide released after two collapsed dams destroyed the settlement.

Following the catastrophic mudslide, local authorities are desperately searching for 23 people missing after two dams at an iron ore mine collapsed and flooded the area in south-eastern Brazil.

Bento Rodrigues, a village of approximately 600 to 2,000, was completely destroyed in as 65ft floodwaters erupted from the broken dams on Thursday. The dams hold water and discarded minerals from the nearby mines operated by Samaraco, of BHP Billiton Ltd and Vale SA.

Journalists have reportedly been denied access to the site – one of the worst hit by the floods – with a city official telling the Wall Street Journal as many as 800 people had been left homeless.

The alarm was raised by resident Alexandre Sousa, 31, who saw the tell-tale wall of red dust and ran to warn his wife and two small daughters.

(AP)

(Reuters)

(AP)

“The dam has burst, the dam has burst,” the labourer is said to have shouted as he ran to the village.

On Saturday, authorities revised down a death toll to one person, but emphasised they were still searching for 13 miners and 10 residents of Beto Rodrigues, including a five-year-old child.

"There's nothing left in my village. Just memories," Soraia Souza, 24, from another village – Paracatu de Baixo – destroyed in the floods, said as she held an 18-month-old baby.

Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press