Rescue teams are working in several areas to find and retrieve more bodies. Some 400 workers are involved in the rescue efforts: half are Minas Gerais state firefighters, while the other half comprised National Public Security Force officers, firefighters from other states and volunteers.

Earlier in the day, five engineers and managers who had been arrested for being responsible for the dam collapse were granted habeas corpus by Brazil's Superior Court of Justice and were released. The five professionals, three of them Vale workers and two outsourced workers, either attested to the safety of the dam or were responsible for obtaining permits.