Eight people were killed and 11 injured in a series of silo explosions at the site of an agricultural cooperative in Brazil's southern Parana state, authorities said Thursday.
Another person was still missing after the incident Wednesday on the premises of the C. Vale agroindustrial company in the municipality of Palotina, the state government said in a statement.
An initial toll late Wednesday had listed two dead and two injured.
"There was an explosion in one of the silos that triggered a second and a third," Parana fire brigade spokesman Tiago Zajac told AFP.
Video distributed on social and traditional media showed a vast column of white smoke coming from the site, and Palotina residents reported feeling a tremor as windows in several homes were blown out.
C. Vale, a major producer of soybeans, wheat and corn, in a statement confirmed that a "large-scale accident hit our central grain reception unit in Palotina... due to causes yet to be determined."
Several dozen firefighters were deployed overnight to the municipality of about 30,000 inhabitants to respond to the blast.
Company boss Alfredo Lang said in a video he was "appalled by the tragedy" and added a technical team was working on determining the causes.
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