NITEROI – Rescue workers scrambled yesterday to find dozens of residents feared buried by a landslide near Rio de Janeiro as the death toll from heavy rains in and around Brazil’s second-largest city rose to 153.
The heaviest rains in more than 40 years, which started on Monday, triggered close to 200 mudslides, which crushed shacks in hillside slums, causing most of the deaths and leaving thousands of people homeless.
Search teams rescued 21 people from the wreckage of houses swept away by a mudslide late on Wednesday in a slum in the city of Niteroi, across a bay from Rio. They said six bodies were pulled from the mud and at least another 70 were believed missing from that incident alone.
Several local media outlets said 200 people were buried beneath the mudslide in Bumba Hill, some citing Rio’s civil defence agency.
Deputy governor of Rio de Janeiro state Luiz Fernando Pezao said some 200 people lived in the area but there was no way to know how many were there when the landslide happened.
Authorities say at least 10,000 houses are still at risk of collapse. – (Reuters)