Six bodies were found Sunday on the seashore near Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Sugarloaf Mountain and cable-car ride, the fire department said.

“They were stuck in the rocks, on the shore,” a spokesman said.

Police were investigating the grisly discovery and did not say how the deaths occurred.

However, the inaccessible area near the dramatic cliffs of the Sugarloaf was the scene of fierce clashes Friday between drug gangsters and Rio police.

Shooting was so intense at one stage that the cable car running to the top of the Sugarloaf had to be shut down.

Police said they clashed with gangs in the poverty-stricken favelas on the hills overlooking Leme, a posh area at the end of Copacabana beach.

After the armed gang members fled into the woods, they apparently went toward the Sugarloaf shore area, where they were hunted by police in helicopters and on jet skis.

Six rifles said to have belonged to the gang members were seized and shown to the media.

Nearly two years after hosting the Olympics, Rio de Janeiro is experiencing a surge in violence.

At the end of February, President Michel Temer put the army in charge of the police, though no real reduction in insecurity has resulted. </s> At least seven people are dead after violence erupted in one of Rio de Janeiro's safest neighborhoods over the weekend, trapping tourists on the famous Sugarloaf mountain. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption The bodies were found at Vermelha beach, next to the Sugar Loaf mountain

Rescue teams in Brazil have retrieved the bodies of seven people from coastal rocks and the forest at the foot of Rio de Janeiro's Sugar Loaf mountain.

Police believe the bodies are of criminals who took part in shootouts that brought panic to residents on Friday and Saturday.

The incidents took place in the Urca neighbourhood, considered one of the safest and most exclusive in Rio.

The Sugar Loaf cable car services had to be suspended for two hours.

The unprecedented move left more than 100 tourists trapped at the top of the mountain for two hours, while police exchanged fire with suspected drug traffickers on nearby mountains.

Brazil country profile

Rio residents have become used to daily incidents of violence, including shootouts on its more than 800 shantytowns or favelas.

But this is the first such incident in the Urca area of Rio, an upmarket peninsula where two prestigious military academies and an army barracks are based.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Rio military police show weapons seized during operation in the neighbouring Babilonia favela

Police say the gangs involved in the shootouts have been fighting for weeks for control of drug trafficking selling points on the neighbouring Babilônia favela.

A man was arrested in the operation, several weapons were seized and a policeman was injured by shrapnel from a hand grenade.

Relatives have accused the police of murdering the seven young people after they gave themselves up.

Violence has been on the rise across Brazil for the past two or three years.

The country is going through one of the most enduring economic and political crises in its history.

The state of Rio de Janeiro has been particularly affected by the crisis, after a sharp drop in crucial oil revenues and a major corruption scandal.

Earlier this year, President Michel Temer deployed the armed forces in Rio to try to curb violence by criminal gangs.

Critics say the measure has had little impact and that violence is still out of control in Rio and other major Brazilian cities. </s> Rio de Janeiro: A cable car service which runs to Rio de Janeiro´s Sugarloaf Mountain, one of Brazil´s most famous tourist attractions, was suspended Friday after a nearby shootout that wounded a policeman.

"The Sugarloaf cable car service is temporarily suspended due to a police operation," the firm that runs the service told AFP.

Military police in Rio confirmed in a statement that an operation began Friday morning in favelas in the hilly areas of Leme district, a popular tourist area in the city´s south, where a number of shootings have occurred in recent days near the famed Copacabana beach.

The police operations, which are becoming increasingly frequent in Rio, are aimed at destroying the grip of drug gangs.

The other side of the hills looks out on the Urca district, where the Sugarloaf cable car begins its 396 meter (yard) climb to the top, offering a stunning panoramic of the "Marvelous City."

"At around 1:00pm (1600 GMT), police came across a group of armed men and a shootout ensued in the forest. A policeman was lightly wounded by grenade shrapnel," police said, adding that an operation was ongoing.

By late afternoon, a helicopter was flying over the area and the police were searching on jet skis for the suspects at sea, an AFP photographer said.

Nearly two years after hosting the Olympics, Rio de Janeiro is experiencing a surge in violence.

At the end of February, President Michel Temer entrusted the army with the city´s security, though the policy has not resulted in any real reduction in insecurity. </s> Firefighters focused their hopes on a bus, a train, mining offices and nearby homes that were buried on Friday when a torrent of mud was unleashed by the dam break at Vale's Corrego do Feijao facility in Minas Gerais state.

More than a dozen helicopters flew over the area on Saturday to survey the disaster and aid the rescue teams.

The state fire department said in a statement that only 10 bodies had been found so far. In a separate statement, the department reduced the number of missing to roughly 300 people, after 46 were found alive.

"Unfortunately, at this point, the chances of finding survivors are minimal. We're likely to just be recovering bodies," Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, told local media.

During a press conference, Zema said the mining complex had all its permits in order and it was unclear what caused the collapse of the dam, which had been inactive for years.

The National Mining Agency ordered Vale, the largest producer of iron ore in the world, to halt operations at the Corrego do Feijao mine, located near the town of Brumadinho in mining-focused Minas Gerais, according to a document seen by Reuters.

State prosecutors have requested that 5 billion reais ($1.33 billion) in Vale's accounts be frozen to be directed toward efforts to pay for damages, Antonio Sergio Tonet, a prosecutor with the Minas Gerais Justice Department, told reporters, saying he expected more assets to be frozen.

Earlier, a state judge ordered Vale to freeze 1 billion reais in its accounts.

The death toll was expected to rise sharply, according to Avimar de Melo Barcelos, the mayor of Brumadinho.

Israel has offered to send search equipment that could be used to find victims in up to 10 meters (33 feet) of mud, Zema said. Search dogs were being flown in from Rio de Janeiro to aid in the rescue efforts.

All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, a police spokesman said.

"I know a lot of the affected people: Two sisters-in-law, a cousin, many friends there in the community. They're in the mud," local resident Carlos Jose dos Santos told Reuters.

Minas Gerais is still recovering from the 2015 collapse of a larger dam that killed 19 people in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster. That dam, owned by the Samarco Mineracao SA joint venture between Vale and BHP Group Ltd, buried a village and poured toxic waste into a major river.

New Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited Minas Gerais and flew over the disaster area Saturday morning. He dispatched three ministers to the area, who addressed reporters after Zema.

Vale Chief Executive Fabio Schvartsman said the dam that burst on Friday was being decommissioned and its capacity was about a fifth of the total waste spilled at Samarco. He said equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan. 10 and it was too soon to say why it collapsed.

The Corrego do Feijao mine is one of four in Vale's Paraoeba complex, which includes two processing plants. The complex produced 26 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017, or about 7 percent of Vale's output, with Corrego do Feijao accounting for 7.8 million tonnes, according to the company's website.

Operations at Samarco remain halted over new licensing, while the companies have worked to pay damages out of court, including an agreement that quashed a 20 billion reais ($5.31 billion) civil lawsuit last year. Federal prosecutors suspended but have not closed an even larger lawsuit. </s> BRUMADINHO (Brazil)
• Brazilian rescue workers yesterday searched for roughly 300 missing people after a tailings dam burst at an iron ore mine owned by Vale, amid faint hopes of finding many alive, three years after a similar disaster involving the miner.

Nine people have been found dead after the dam burst last Friday, while nearly 200 people have been rescued, according to firemen running the rescue effort in the town of Brumadinho.

"Unfortunately, at this point, the chances of finding survivors are minimal. We're likely to just be rescuing bodies," Mr Romeu Zema, governor of the mining-intensive state of Minas Gerais where the disaster struck, told local press.

The death toll was expected to rise sharply, according to Mr Avimar de Melo Barcelos, mayor of the town of Brumadinho located near the mine. The cause of the rupture is not known.

Rescuers have mapped out four points where people could still be found alive, including a cafeteria buried in sludge around lunchtime, a police spokesman said.

Search dogs were being flown in from Rio de Janeiro.

All of those missing are Vale employees or contractors, the spokesman said.

Mr Renato Simao de Oliveiras, 32, was searching hospitals and with the police for his brother, who had worked for Vale for six years, and was despairing at the lack of information.

"I heard about it when I was at work. I called him several times but couldn't get a hold of him," he said. "We're lost, we don't know anything."

The state is still recovering from the collapse in November 2015 of a larger dam that killed 19 people in Brazil's worst environmental disaster. That dam, owned by the Samarco Mineracao joint venture between Vale and BHP Group, buried a village and poured toxic waste into a major river.

A state judge ordered Vale to freeze one billion reals (S$359 million) in its accounts, to be held against damage caused by the dam rupture.

President Jair Bolsonaro was set to visit Minas Gerais and fly over the disaster area yesterday, after dispatching three ministers there last Friday.

Vale chief executive Fabio Schvartsman said the dam that burst last Friday at the Feijao iron mine was being decommissioned and its capacity was about a fifth of the total waste spilled at Samarco.

He said equipment had shown the dam was stable on Jan 10 and it was too soon to say why it collapsed.

The Feijao mine is one of four in Vale's Paraopeba complex, which includes two processing plants and produced 26 million tonnes of iron ore in 2017, or about 7 per cent of Vale's total output, according to information on the company's website. Mr Schvartsman declined to say how output would be affected.

Operations at Samarco remain halted over new licensing, while the companies have worked to pay damages out of court, including an agreement that quashed a 20 billion reals civil lawsuit last year.

Federal prosecutors suspended but have still not closed an even larger lawsuit.

Iron ore prices are likely to rise in the wake of the disaster as there may be less supply on the market for the short term, said Mr Chris LaFemina, a Jefferies mining industry analyst. </s> SAO PAULO (AP) - Eight employees of Brazilian mining giant Vale have been arrested in connection with the investigation into last month's collapse of a mining dam that killed at least 166 people and left 147 missing in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

The state's prosecutor's office said in a statement that the employees were arrested Friday.

They will be held "under temporary custody" for 30 days to determine whether they have responsibility for the Jan. 25 collapse.

Those arrested include four managers and four members of technical teams in charge of monitoring the stability of the dam located near the city of Brumadinho.

Brazil research institute Fiocruz recently said the contamination of the ecosystem and the Paraopeba River could precipitate the spread of dengue, yellow fever or diarrhea in the area.

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2019 file photo, a helicopter carrying a body pulled from the mud, days after a Vale dam collapsed, flies over a cemetery with two open graves in Brumadinho, Brazil. Lax regulations, chronic short staffing and a law that muffled the voices of environmentalists on mining licenses made the collapse all but destined to happen, experts and legislators say. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)

Fernando Nunes walks on the mud where he has been searching for the body of his brother Peterson, returning this day to see if rescuers had found him, in Brumadinho, Brazil, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. Two days after this photo was taken, his brother's body was found, recovered and identified by their mother. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Malvina Firmina Nunes and her son Fernando are comforted by friends at their home as they grieve for their missing 35-year-old son and brother, Peterson, after a deadly Vale dam collapse in Brumadinho, Brazil, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. "I called him on the phone, but he didn't answer me," Malvina said. "I want to talk to him, but he doesn't answer. Where is my son?" (AP Photo/Leo Correa </s> (BBC) — Rescuers are searching for survivors from a Brazilian landslide that killed 10 people, including at least one child.

The incident happened in Rio de Janeiro state in the early hours of Saturday, following two days of heavy downpour.

A boulder slid down a slope and hit a group of houses in the city of Niterói, according to the local fire service.

Volunteers have joined firefighters and law enforcement, creating a bucket chain to clear mud and debris.

The Globo news network said the group was working in silence so they could hear any victims that might be under the earth.

Lighting towers were assembled so that the search could continue through Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

Local media said at least 11 people have been rescued so far, including at least two children. The majority were reportedly found with the help of sniffer dogs.

A number of homes and a pizzeria are said to have been hit by the landslide, local media reported.

Landslides and floods are prone to happen in Brazil – the most deadly was in 2011, when whole hillsides collapsed after heavy rain, killing almost 1,000 people in Rio de Janeiro state. </s> At least 11 people are dead and up to 300 people have been reported missing after an apparent dam collapse in Brazil on Friday.

At least 266 Vale mining company employees are among the missing, a spokesperson for the southeastern state of Minas Gerais said.

A spokesperson for Minas Gerais state’s Civil Defense said 189 people have been rescued so far.

Vale, the company that operates the dame, is the country's largest mining company, according to The Associated Press.

"Part of the Vila Ferteco community has also been affected," the mining company said in a statement. "Rescue and care of the wounded is being carried out on site by the Fire Department and Civil Defense. There is still no confirmation as to the cause of the accident.

"The top priority of the company right now is to support the rescue efforts and to help preserve and protect the lives of direct employees, third-party employees and local communities," the statement added.

Nineteen people were killed when the village of Bento Rodrigues, also in Minas Gerais, was destroyed when a dam owned by Samarco, a joint venture by Vale and another Brazilian company, collapsed in November 2015. In the wake of that collapse, Samarco has provided $4.4 billion in compensation to the region over the past three years, according to Vale's annual report.
Seven bodies are recovered from the base of Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.