Haitian workers killed in Brazil grain silo blast part of rising toll

FILE PHOTO: A general view after a series of explosions at grain silos owned by agro-industrial cooperative C. Vale, in the city of Palotina, Parana State, Brazil, July 27, 2023. Brazil's Parana Firefighters/Handout/File Photo

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Friends and family mourned seven Haitian workers killed in a grain silo explosion in southern Brazil during a wake on Friday, as a labor official flagged concerns about a spike in grain storage deaths in one of the world's top food suppliers.

At least eight workers were killed - the majority of them Haitians - and nearly a dozen others were injured in the Wednesday blast at an agricultural co-operative in southern Brazil called C.Vale in Parana state.