SAO PAULO, Feb 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Floods and landslides caused by torrential rains have killed at least 28 people in southeastern Brazil, with seven still missing, authorities said.
The death toll was up by four since Friday, with rescue workers still digging through the mud and the remains of landslide-wrecked houses in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s industrial hub.
The bodies of two brothers, both minors, and an elderly man were found by firefighters in the municipality of Franco da Rocha in the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Region, in an area buried by a landslide, according to the report.
At least four of the victims were children. Another 12 people were injured, and nearly 3,000 forced from their homes, authorities said.
The seven missing were feared buried in a deadly landslide that tore a giant, muddy gash through a poor hillside community in Franco de Rocha, 40 kilometers north of sprawling Sao Paulo city.
Sao Paulo state, home to 46 million people, has been hit by days of heavy rain, with more forecast for the coming days.
President Jair Bolsonaro surveyed the disaster zone Tuesday and held meetings with local officials.
“We regret these deaths. We know that a lot of times people build their residences out of necessity in places that 10, 20, 30 years later, get hit by disasters,” he said.
Deadly landslides are a frequent occurrence in Brazil during the rainy season, often hitting poor neighborhoods with shoddily built houses. — NNN-AGENCIES
