IN the Brazilian State of Parana, a grain silo exploded Wednesday afternoon local time.
Reports say that at least 8 people died and 11 others suffered injuries.
Of the fatalities, all were men between the ages of 27 and 55 – one of them a Brazilian national and the other seven of Haitian nationality.
An official statement from C. Vale providing a third update on the incident said a search for a missing person continues.
Video footage circulating on social media shows a large column of white smoke coming from the site.
The blast happened in C. Vale Cooperative in the small town of Palotina where around 30,000 people live and is located 600km away from the state’s capital Curitiba.
Vale is known to be a major producer of soybeans, wheat, and corn that stores grain in 125 units across five Brazilian States as well as in Paraguay.
A silo is a structure for storing bulk materials and is used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage.
The company said the silo which blew up stored about 12,000 metric tons of soybeans and 40,000 metric tons of corn.
According to C. Vale, a similar explosion took place in the area back in 1993.
The IML which stands for Instituto Medico Legal or Institute of Forensic Medicine in English, has only released the body of Saulo Da Rocha Batista while the seven others are yet to be released, according to C. Vale.
Saulo’s funeral takes place Friday local time at the Bom Jesus Funeral Home in Palotina.
Meanwhile, as of now, the cooperative said the cause of the explosion is yet to be determined.
