SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A mining dam burst in southeastern Brazil on Friday, killing at least seven people, flooding nearby homes, submerging cars and buses under a river of sludge and leaving 200 people missing, according to the rescue workers searching for them.

The accident, in the town of Brumadinho, comes just three years after a dam burst in Mariana, 75 miles away, killing 19 people and causing one of the worst environmental disasters in Brazil’s history.

The Brumadinho dam ruptured in the early afternoon on Friday, spilling murky water filled with mining waste into an administrative area where employees were working and a neighborhood where they lived. The dam is owned by the iron ore mining giant Vale S.A., which also was a joint owner of the dam that burst in Mariana.

The press office for the Civil Defense service said search and rescue efforts had been suspended after nightfall, but confirmed that seven people were killed and 17 people were injured and rescued. There were more than 50 firefighters on location with six helicopters and the search for approximately 200 would continue on Saturday.