Sawt Falasteen - Eight dead in Brazil hot air balloon accident

"Eight fatalities and 13 survivors," governor Jorginho Mello said on X.

Videos taken by bystanders and carried on Brazilian television showed the moment when the balloon erupted in flames above the coastal town of Praia Grande. The weather conditions were clear.

The basket carrying the passengers plummeted dozens of meters to the ground in flames.

"We still have no information" about the condition of the survivors, a spokeswoman for Santa Catarina firefighters told AFP.

Praia Grande, on the Atlantic coast, is a popular destination for hot-air ballooning in Brazil.

The survivors were being treated in area hospitals, firefighters said.

An investigation was launched to determine the cause of the accident.

"I want to express my solidarity with the families of the victims," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a statement.

The pilot told officials that the fire was sparked by a blowtorch in the basket, Tiago Luiz Lemos, a police official in Praia Grande, told local media.

The pilot tried to bring the balloon down as soon as the fire erupted, "and once it was close to the ground, he told the passengers to jump from the basket. But some of them couldn't do it and the fire grew," the official said.

One witness told the Razao newspaper that he saw "two people falling, they were on fire, the basket broke off and the balloon fell."

It was the second fatal balloon accident in the country in just a few days. Less than a week ago, a woman died during a ride in southeastern Sao Paulo state.

Z.AbuSaud--SF-PST