Twenty-two people were found dead on Friday after a small hotel and surrounding homes collapsed in the beach resort of Angra dos Reis, one of Brazil's most exclusive tourism destinations, the Rio de Janeiro state's civil defense said.
Television footage showed the Sankay hotel and a number of homes in Angra buried under a mountain of mud. Rescue teams, aided by helicopters and navy boats, were struggling to reach the area where the hotel collapsed, Pedro Machado, head of the firefighters' corps, told GloboNews television.
Brazil Mudslides
Civil defense authorities said about 40 people were registered at the hotel. They told Reuters heavy rains forecast for the coming days could make rescue work harder and trigger more mudslides.
"Rescue crews told us there is just so much mud and water there which, coupled with that fact that the site is one of very difficult access, force them to remove all the mud manually basically, without the aid of heavy equipment," a civil defense spokeswoman said in a phone interview.
Brazil Mudslides
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