Around 300 individuals have been being housed in shelters, largely in colleges, officers mentioned. (Representational)

Petrpolis, Brazil:

At least 78 individuals have been killed in devastating flash floods and landslides that hit the picturesque Brazilian metropolis of Petropolis, turning streets into torrential rivers and sweeping away homes, officers mentioned Wednesday.

Rescue staff raced to seek out survivors buried within the mud and wreckage after heavy storms Tuesday dumped a month’s value of rain in three hours on the scenic vacationer city within the hills north of Rio de Janeiro.

There have been fears the loss of life rely, which rose steadily by the day, might climb additional nonetheless as firefighters and volunteers dug by the stays of homes washed away in torrents of mud, a lot of them in impoverished hillside slums.

It is the most recent in a sequence of lethal storms to hit Brazil up to now three months, which specialists say are being made worse by local weather change.

The state authorities mentioned at the least 21 individuals had been rescued alive. Using canines, excavators and helicopters, rescue staff have been urgently looking for extra earlier than it was too late.

Around 300 individuals have been being housed in shelters, largely in colleges, officers mentioned. Charities referred to as for donations of mattresses, meals, water, clothes and face masks for victims.

Wendel Pio Lourenco, a 24-year-old resident, was strolling by the road with a tv in his arms, heading to an area church seeking shelter.

He mentioned he was making an attempt to save lots of a number of possessions, after spending a sleepless evening serving to seek for victims.

“I found a girl who was buried alive,” he mentioned.

“Everyone is saying it looks like a war zone.”

Governor Claudio Castro mentioned a lot the identical after visiting the scene.

“It looks like a scene from a war. It’s incredible,” he instructed a information convention.

He praised rescue staff for managing “to save a large number of people before it was too late.”

Videos posted on social media from Tuesday’s rains confirmed streets in Petropolis, the Nineteenth-century summer time capital of the Brazilian empire, fill with violent floods that swept away automobiles, bushes and almost all the pieces else of their paths.

Many retailers have been utterly inundated by the rising water, which gushed down the streets of the historic metropolis heart, leaving jumbled piles of overturned automobiles in its wake.

Officials mentioned greater than 180 firefighters and different rescue staff have been responding to the emergency, aided by 400 troopers despatched in as reinforcements.

City corridor declared a “state of disaster” within the metropolis of 300,000 individuals, which sits 68 kilometers (42 miles) north of Rio.

The metropolis council declared three days of mourning for victims.

– ‘Tragedy’ –

Petropolis is a well-liked vacation spot for vacationers fleeing the summer time warmth of Rio.

The space is thought for its leafy streets, stately properties, imperial palace — at present a museum — and the pure fantastic thing about the encompassing mountains.

Tuesday’s storms dumped 258 millimeters (10 inches) of rain on town in three hours, almost equal to all of the rainfall from the earlier month, the mayor’s workplace mentioned.

The heaviest downpour had handed, however extra reasonable rain was anticipated to proceed on and off for a number of days, authorities mentioned.

President Jair Bolsonaro, on an official journey to Russia, mentioned on Twitter he was preserving abreast of the “tragedy.”

“Thank you for your words of solidarity with the people of Petropolis,” he instructed President Vladimir Putin after assembly the Russian chief.

“May God comfort (the victims’) families.”

Brazil has been swept by heavy rains since December which have brought on a sequence of lethal floods and landslides.

Experts say wet season downpours are being augmented by La Nina — the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean — and by the impression of local weather change.

Because a hotter environment holds extra water, world warming will increase the danger and depth of flooding from excessive rainfall.

Last month, torrential rain triggered floods and landslides that killed at the least 28 individuals in southeastern Brazil, largely in Sao Paulo state.

There have additionally been heavy rains within the northeastern state of Bahia, the place 24 individuals died in December.

Petropolis and the encompassing area have been beforehand hit by extreme storms in January 2011, when greater than 900 individuals died in flooding and landslides.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)