UPDATED (8:15 p.m. ET) to include more video, details

Dozens of people are feared dead after a mining company's dam burst in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais on Thursday, sending a cascade of muddy water into the small village below, local media say.

G1, a Brazillian news website, is reporting that 16 are dead and 45 missing, citing a local union.

BRAZIL: PHOTO: Severe flooding in town of Mariana after dam break. Dozens missing. (Photo via TV Globo) pic.twitter.com/Ig2GBd5ULe — Gabriel Elizondo (@elizondogabriel) November 5, 2015

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"It was a catastrophe," Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Brito, an environmental prosecutor, told local paper Estado de Minas.

The Fundão Dam, which is operated by the Samarco mining company, sits above the community of Bento Rodrigues, which has an estimated population of 620 people. The village was completely flooded, and only a piece of the church tower could be seen, a local resident, José Eduardo Martins, was quoted as saying.

Vídeo mostra rompimento da barragem em Bento Rodrigues, distrito de Mariana. https://t.co/50j7QBPPkI pic.twitter.com/1bMyxtWvYG — Estado de Minas (@em_com) November 5, 2015

Uma das coisas mais absurdas, triste e inimaginável q fizemos por aqui! Todos os detalhes Jaja no #mgrecord na @tvrecordminas A photo posted by Dudu Barbatti (@dudubarbatti) on Nov 5, 2015 at 12:41pm PST

Video posted on globo.com showed a vast debris zone, with roofs torn off houses and cars flipped.

No survivors could be seen walking the streets, which were covered in a red mud. The muddy waters were likely polluted with mining waste. At least one car was spotted atop a building's roof.

The breach of the dam came just after 4 p.m. local time, after people there reportedly received an alert "requesting that all residents of Bento Rodrigues district... evacuate their homes," the Hoje em Dia newspaper reported. Video posted on YouTube shows a steady stream of water flowing through a valley.

Outlet Ultimas Brasil reports that local mining workers noticed the like half an hour before the breach.

The dam was meant to hold in the mine's "tailings pond," which contains both water and a sludgy mixture of waste rock called tailings. According to the Vancouver Sun's explanation, such ponds "serve the dual role of containing the ground-rock tailings from the ore-milling and separation process and recycling the water to be reused in processing."

Rescuers in Brazil descended on the scene shortly after the break. One resident said that people in the area were gathering food and water for the affected areas.

"The population is already mobilized to help the residents of Bento Rodrigues and workers affected by the dam break," he was quoted as saying. "A campaign was launched to raise donations such as food and water."