A British court has found mining giant BHP liable for a deadly dam collapse in Brazil a decade ago, which sparked one of the world's largest environmental disasters on record.

Nineteen people were killed, one village was completely destroyed and toxic mud caused widespread devastation hundreds of kilometres downstream when a tailings dam at an iron ore mine near Mariana, in the country's south east, burst in November 2015.

The local municipality, and hundreds of thousands of other claimants who say they were affected, sued BHP over the incident in the High Court of England and Wales.

BHP, which is headquartered in Australia and the UK, and runs operations around the globe, jointly owned the Brazilian company that was responsible for the dam.

The judgment, released Friday, found the dam

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