PALOTINA, Brazil (CMC) – Haiti’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean Victor Généus, on Saturday confirmed reports that seven Haitians were killed in an explosion at a plant in southern Brazil.

It’s reported that earlier this week, a grain silo explosion at the C Vale agricultural cooperative in Brazil’s southern state of Paraná killed at least eight people, seven of them Haitians, and injured 12 others in the town of Palotina.

According to officials at C Vale, the explosion happened in the early evening on Wednesday and firefighters and rescue teams worked through the night and next day to provide assistance and recover victims.

At the time of the explosion, the victims were in a tunnel that connects different parts of the silo.

The smoke caused by the fire was visible from several kilometres away and the windows of the houses near the cooperative were shattered.

The cause of the blast has not yet been determined.

C Vale is the second largest agro-industrial cereal cooperative in Brazil.