(Manaus) Eight people, including four children, died in a landslide after heavy rains in Manaus, in northern Brazil, local authorities announced on Monday, while firefighters continue to search the rubble of buried houses.
“Three people were rescued alive, and eight bodies were recovered, four adults and four children. The search will continue throughout the day,” the governor’s office of Amazonas state, of which Manaus is the capital, said in a statement.
According to the town hall, at least 11 houses were buried under the mudslide, in the popular district of Jorge Teixeira, built on the hillside in the west of the largest metropolis in the Amazon.
“There is still the possibility that people are missing, so we are continuing the search, until we are sure that there is no one left” under the rubble, the colonel said. Orleilso Ximenes Muniz, commander of the Amazonas firefighters, to journalists present on the spot, including AFP.
According to him, 74 residents of the neighborhood had to be evacuated.
“It is a difficult place to access, and (rescuers) received help from the whole neighborhood in the search for missing people,” Governor Wilson Lima said in a statement.
“In Manaus we have more than a thousand areas like this (built on the hillside), 62 of which are high risk,” said Mayor David Almeida, pledging investments in the prevention of natural disasters.
In February, landslides caused by record rainfall killed at least 65 people in a coastal region of Sao Paulo state.
In Brazil, 9.5 million people live in areas at risk from floods and landslides.
Experts blame the effects of climate change and uncontrolled urbanization.