The lifeless bodies of three missing were found on Saturday in the rubble of a collapsed building in Paulista, not far from Recife, in northeastern Brazil, bringing the toll of the disaster to at least 14 dead, according to authorities.
AFP
The firefighters stopped their search after finding a woman and two children missing since the collapse of the building on Friday, struck by a danger order, but illegally occupied.
The collapse also injured 11 people, aged 5 to 45, the Civil Protection of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco had also indicated in a previous report.
A 65-year-old woman and two teenage girls were able to get out alive, they said.
The three-storey building adjoined a large housing complex, according to images released by the local press.
The apartments there had been closed in 2010 due to a risk of collapse, but they were occupied illegally, added the Civil Protection.
In April, another building in the same condition collapsed in Olinda, still in the state of Pernambuco, killing six people.
AFP
It is most often in poor neighborhoods, where illegal construction is commonplace and where the population has less easy access to healthy housing, that this type of disaster occurs.
Episodes of heavy rain add a risk of landslides and an additional threat to residents of illegal housing.
In 2020, the collapse of illegally built buildings in a favela in Rio, in the southeast, after several days of intense rains left 24 dead.
In February, 65 people lost their lives in a landslide caused by record rains in Sao Sebastiao, a seaside resort located 200 km from Sao Paulo (southeast). In 24 hours, it had rained more than twice the monthly precipitation.
About 9.5 million people live in areas vulnerable to landslides or floods out of Brazil’s 215 million population, according to official figures.