A giant boulder has rolled down a mountain, crashing into houses in the Brazilian city of Vila Velha and leaving at least 15 people injured and an entire neighbourhood evacuated, officials say.
The boulder, which weighed close to 30,000 tonnes according to the estimates of officials at City Hall in Vila Velha, came rolling down Boa Vista ridge on Friday night, destroyed eight houses and caused structural damage to other dwellings in a shantytown of the Sao Torquato neighbourhood.
Despite the boulder being the size of a house, authorities have not reported any deaths and only five of the injured had to be admitted to medical centres, while the other 10 were only slightly hurt.
City Hall at Vila Velha, near the southeast Brazilian regional capital of Vitoria, set up a shelter at a school to lodge 733 inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who were ordered to leave their homes as a preventive measure against the possibility of more landslides.
The authorities have no idea what caused the rockfall, since there was no rain at the time it occurred.
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