Landslides in Brazil | Death toll rises to 138 in Petropolis, rescuers still hard at work

(Petrópolis) Rescuers discovered new bodies on Saturday under piles of mud in the Brazilian city of Petropolis (southeast) devastated by floods and landslides which killed at least 138 people, including 26 children.

In a thick fog, the rescuers, recognizable by their orange uniforms, continued the search using shovels and spades to try to find the missing, five days after the disaster.

Heavy rains fell on Tuesday on the city of 300,000 inhabitants, located 60 km north of Rio, turning the streets into torrents of mud and causing landslides. Petropolis received more rain than the average for an entire month of February.

More than 500 firefighters, with helicopters, diggers and sniffer dogs remain mobilized, even if the chances of finding survivors are increasingly slim.

In the Alto Serra district, where nearly 80 houses were engulfed by a mudslide, rescuers transported two bodies in body bags in the morning, noted an AFP photographer.

As in relief operations during earthquakes, rescuers occasionally blow loud whistles to call the population to silence and try to detect signs of life.

In this area, authorities say the mountain of mud and rubble is unstable. Searches are therefore carried out using hand tools and chainsaws in the most difficult to reach places.

Since the launch of search operations, 24 people have been found alive, but mainly in the hours following the disaster, according to the authorities.

The number of missing remains unclear. Police announced a figure of 218 people on Friday. But she did not specify whether she counted in this total the bodies not yet identified or the people already found.

For the time being, 91 bodies out of the 138 found have been identified, and 72 victims have been buried in the main cemetery of the city, including 19 on Saturday morning alone.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who flew over the disaster areas on Friday, described “scenes of war”.

The austral summer was particularly deadly in Brazil, with torrential rains that have killed dozens in recent months in the states of Bahia (northeast), Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo (southeast).

This extreme precipitation is linked, according to experts, to global warming.