Rescue crews aided by dogs searched into the night for occupants of a missing minibus and other possible victims feared bur-ied in a huge crater after the earth gave way at a construction site for a new subway station.
Witnesses told police that the minibus with a driver, fare collector and two passengers aboard fell into the crater when the construction site collapsed on Friday, said Etrusco Juarez, a spokesman for Sao Paulo's state public security department.
Two pedestrians and a truck driver who was working at the construction site next to one of Sao Paulo's busiest highways are also missing and may be buried underneath the rubble, the government's Agencia Brasil news agency said.
The effort continued after darkness fell on Saturday, and authorities said it was still possible that people have may have survived more than 24 hours after the accident. But they have not found any sign of the minibus or possible victims.
"We're making every possible effort in the search for the people who disappeared," Sao Paulo State Governor Jose Serra told reporters.
Witnesses said the structure gave way without warning, opening a huge hole about 60m wide and 38m deep which swallowed dump trucks and tied up traffic for miles in South America's biggest city.
Two cars were removed from the rubble and a towering crane at the edge of the hole that threatened to topple over was stabilized overnight. But more than 100 people living near the site were evacuated and put up in hotels because of fears that the crane weighing 50 tonnes might still collapse, Sao Paulo's civil defense department said in a statement.
Local media reported three construction workers were hurt in the incident, but officials said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
The cause of the collapse was under investigation, but the consortium of Brazilian companies building the subway station said in a statement that heavy tropical rains this year may have contributed by softening the underground area around the construction site.
"All efforts are focusing now on the rescue of possible victims," said Consorcio Via Amarela, a group that includes Constructora Norberto Odebrecht SA, Brazil's largest construction company.
The consortium denied that the accident was caused by negligence.
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