Dam engineers held hostage

Indians are holding three engineers at one of the work sites of the massive Belo Monte dam in Brazil’s Amazon jungle after talks on the project’s environmental impact broke down.

An official from the Norte Energia consortium that is building the dam said the engineers were being held against their will.

An activist group assisting the Indians living in the region said in a statement yesterday that the engineers would be released after the consortium addressed the environmental concerns of indigenous groups.

When completed, the £7 billion, 11,000-megawatt dam will be the world’s third largest.