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Three firefighters pulled a man’s body from the mud amid the rubble of houses swept away in a landslide in south-eastern Brazil, where 30 people died and 39 were still missing on Tuesday after torrential rains.
A river in the state of Minas Gerais burst its banks and streets became raging currents of brown water after an overnight downpour in a region that has seen record rain this month.
State firefighters said 30 people had died in the cities of Juiz de Fora and Ubá. More than 200 people have been rescued.
Firefighters and search dogs worked to find 39 people still missing in the debris.
Twelve houses in a hillside neighbourhood of Juiz de Fora had been swept away in a “massive landslide”, Maj Demetrius Goulart of the fire brigade told AFP.
“Many people were inside their homes at night when it was raining,” he said.
Wilton Aparecido de Souza sobbed as he spoke of his 20-year-old son trapped in the debris.
“He was a good boy, he had just finished his military service and he wanted to buy a motorcycle,” the 42-year-old told AFP.
“At least find his body, so I can give him a proper burial.”
Silence hung heavy over dozens of onlookers in the rare moments the excavators’ engines stopped, broken only by the barking of a panicked dog.
“Almost everyone buried in this mud is family; there’s my sister, my niece,” said Cleiton Ronan, a 32-year-old warehouse worker.
Earlier, Goulart said a boy aged about 10 had been pulled alive from the rubble after a two-hour rescue effort. Many expressed hope that their loved ones would still be found alive.
But, said Paulo Roberto Bermudes Rezende, a state civil defence coordinator, “the longer it goes on, the slimmer the chances of finding survivors become”.
Volunteers with shovels came to help the firefighters.
Atila Mauro, a 33-year-old bricklayer, said: “When I dug up children’s belongings – balloons, teddy bears – it broke my heart. I’m a father too … I’m trying to help however I can.”
The state fire brigade said the rainfall had led to flooding and landslides, while images shared on social media showed buildings collapsing.
Juiz de Fora’s mayor, Margarida Salomão, has declared a state of emergency.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, wrote on X: “Our focus is to guarantee humanitarian assistance, the restoration of basic services, aid to displaced people, and support for reconstruction.”
Salomão said her municipality of little more than 500,000 people was experiencing its wettest February on record, with 584mm (23in) of accumulated rainfall.
Some neighbourhoods were isolated, with at least 20 landslides, Salomão said, adding that the situation was “extreme”.
Her office said that an estimated 440 people had had to leave their homes and were receiving support for temporary shelter.
State authorities suspended classes in all municipal schools.
Brazil has suffered various tragedies in recent years due to extreme weather events ranging from floods to drought and intense heatwaves.
In 2024, more than 200 people died and two million were affected by unprecedented flooding in southern Brazil, one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s history.
Two years earlier, a deluge in the city of Petrópolis outside Rio de Janeiro left 241 people dead.
Experts have linked most of these events to the effects of the climate crisis.
