BRUMADINHO, Brazil, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian officials on Sunday suspended the search for potential survivors of a dam collapse here in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais amid fears that another nearby dam owned by the same company could also break.

An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture went up early Sunday in Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where a dam collapsed killing 40 with hundreds more feared dead, firefighters of the Minas Gerais fire department and the Brazilian mining company Vale said.

Firefighters have called for the evacuation of some 24,000 people from the Brazilian town hit by deadly mud flow from the earlier rupture of the B6 mining dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale.

The company's employees were having lunch Friday afternoon when the dam gave away. The confirmed death toll stood at 40 dead by Sunday with up to 300 people estimated to be missing, the Minas Gerais fire department reported.

Brazil's Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate the mining dam collapse, saying "someone is definitely at fault." Dodge further noted that there are 600 mines in the state of Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.

In November 2015, a tailings dam collapsed in Mariana, Minas Gerais, killing 19 people and causing substantial environmental and economic damage. It was considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history.