BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL (AFP) - At least 30 people have been killed by intense storms in south-eastern Brazil, the Civil Defense office in Minas Gerais state said on Saturday (Jan 25).

The toll was a jump from the 11 reported by the same office earlier in the day.

Seventeen people are also missing, seven injured, and some 3,500 have been forced to move in more following a series of landslides and house collapses, Civil Defense officials said.