Dozens of children among dead as Brazil flood toll rises to 138

RESCUE workers pulled more bodies yesterday from the muddy wreckage left by devastating floods and landslides in the Brazilian city of Petropolis, as the death toll climbed to at least 138, including 26 children.

Workers dug with spades and shovels through the rubble and muck as the search entered its fifth day.

Rescuers carried out two recovered corpses in body bags in the hard-hit neighbourhood of Alto da Serra, as relatives sobbed in the street.

Workers occasionally blew loud whistles to call for silence and listen for signs of life.

However, authorities say there is little hope at this point of finding survivors from Tuesday’s torrential rains, which turned streets to gushing rivers in the city in the south-eastern mountains and triggered landslides in poor hillside neighbourhoods that wiped out virtually all in their path.

Officials say 24 people have been rescued alive, but that came mostly in the early hours after the tragedy.

Rio de Janeiro state police said 218 people remained missing as of late Friday.

Meanwhile, 91 of the 138 bodies recovered so far have been identified.

Many of the missing may be among the unidentified bodies. But the numbers have been hazy, and it is difficult to know how high the death toll could go.

The dead include at least 26 minors, said the police.

Jair Bolsonaro, the president, who flew over the disaster zone on Friday by helicopter, said the city was suffering from “enormous destruction, like scenes of war”.

Tuesday’s was the latest in a series of deadly storms to hit Brazil, which experts say are made worse by climate change.

In the past three months, at least 188 people have died in severe rains, mainly in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo and the north-eastern state of Bahia, as well as Petropolis.