It was announced that about 100 people lost their lives in the landslide and flood disaster in Petrópolis, Brazil.
Petrópolis, located in the mountains north of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, was under the influence of heavy rains.
The houses in the hillside neighborhoods were destroyed and the flood waters swept through the city streets, dragging the cars.
Search and rescue teams scavenge the mud trying to find survivors.
Brazil’s National Civil Defense said on Twitter that 24 people have been rescued alive so far and 94 people have died.
Videos shared on social media show extensive damage and vehicles floating on the streets.
“The situation is almost warlike… There are cars hanging from poles, overturned, piles of mud and a lot of water,” Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro told reporters.
He said that while 35 people were reported missing, search and rescue efforts would continue uninterrupted.
Petrópolis is a popular tourist destination set in the hills above Rio de Janeiro, the summer getaway of Brazilian monarchs in the 19th century.
But after a month of rain had fallen in just three hours, much of the city’s great charm was in ruins as the flood destroyed homes and shops.
In one of the worst-affected neighborhoods, as many as 80 homes were damaged by landslides.
“The water came very quickly and with great force. My loss was 100 percent. With the pandemic, our life was already difficult … and now this tragedy is happening,” Henrique Pereira, a store owner in Petrópolis, told Reuters news agency. said.
About 300 people are housed in schools and shelters, and charities are calling for donations of mattresses, food, clothing and face masks.
“I found a girl buried alive,” Wendel Pio Lourenco, a 24-year-old resident of the city, told AFP news agency on his way to a church in the area to seek shelter.
“Everyone says this place looks like a battlefield.”
The city’s mayor declared a state of emergency.
Meanwhile, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on an official visit to Russia, said he would organize emergency aid for the victims.
Brazil has been rocked by a series of heavy rains in the past three months, and scientists say the situation is getting worse due to climate change.
There were severe storms in and around Petrópolis in January 2011 that killed more than 900 people in floods and landslides.