Brazil leader sends condolences after rains kill 91

RECIFE • President Jair Bolsonaro has sent his condolences to the families of 91 people who died in torrential rains in north-eastern Brazil, as rescue workers continued a grim search for victims.

Releasing an updated toll, the authorities said 26 people remained missing in the region around the city of Recife, where days of downpours triggered flooding and landslides that swept away virtually everything in their path.

Mr Bolsonaro on Monday posted a video on Twitter that showed him flying in a helicopter over a disaster zone where brown floodwater still inundated large areas and gashes of mud scarred hillsides where houses once stood.

"I tried to land, but the pilots' recommendation was that, given the instability of the soil, we could have an accident. So we decided against it," the far-right president told a news conference.

He recalled a string of devastating floods in Brazil that have killed hundreds of people in recent months, and which experts say are being aggravated by climate change.

"We send our condolences to the families. Our top priority is comforting the families and getting aid to the population," he said.

The force of the landslides ripped apart houses in neighbourhoods including Jardim Monteverde, a poor community just outside Recife. Rescue workers have found more than 20 bodies buried in the mud that tore through the neighbourhood on Saturday, and said they expect to find more.

"I can't eat or sleep. It's just so much pain," said 56-year-old Maria Lucia da Silva, whose neighbours' house was destroyed, killing 11 people.

Dozens of emergency workers are still digging through the ocean of muck, as clean-up crews clear the streets, slowly working their way through the wreckage, an AFP photographer saw.

In just hours on Friday and Saturday, parts of Pernambuco received 70 per cent of the rain they usually get in the entire month of May.

"We never saw so much rain fall in so little time," said retiree Mario Guadalupe, 60. "I saw the landslide happen. First part of the hill gave way, then it was just a tsunami of mud. It nearly took out my house."

Such tragedies are becoming a familiar script in Brazil. They tend to hit hardest in poor neighbourhoods, especially hillside slums.

In February, 233 people were killed in floods and landslides in the south-eastern city of Petropolis, in Rio de Janeiro state. In January, torrential rains claimed at least 28 lives in south-eastern Brazil, mostly in Sao Paulo. And in December, storms killed 24 people in the north-eastern state of Bahia.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE