New Delhi: As many as 10 people died when a canyon rock face broke and fell on motor boats carrying tourists visiting a waterfall in southeastern Brazil, media reports said.
According to a Reuters report, a tower of rocks broke away suddenly from the canyon wall, and came crashing down in Lake Furnas by the waterfall.
The incident took place Saturday, and shocking videos of the dramatic collapse have since gone viral on social media.
Sharing some of the videos, President Jair Bolsonaro called the incident a "disaster".
The videos show the column of rock crushing tourist boats, and causing a huge wave of water in the lake.
While seven persons were declared dead on Saturday, the Reuters report said firemen and divers found three more bodies in the lake on Sunday, which took the death toll up to 10.
The incident has left nearly 30 tourists injured as they were hit by the falling rocks.
The lake is located at Capitolio in Minas Gerais state, and the report said the region has witnessed heavy rainfall for the past two weeks now. The rock face could have got loosened because of that.
The victims, aged 14 to 68 years, were all Brazilian nationals, an AFP report said, citing preliminary investigations.
The ten deceased were part of a group of family and friends travelling on the boat that was impacted the most, the report said.
Lake Furnas is a popular tourist spot as people flock to see the cliffs, caverns and waterfalls surrounding the green waters.