At least 10 dead in Brazil landslides

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) : Landslides caused by torrential rains in southeast Brazil have left at least 10 people dead, rescue services in Minas Gerais state said Sunday.

Nine people died in the city of Ipatinga, where 80 millimeters (3.1 inches) of rain fell in the space of one hour on Saturday night, the mayor’s office said.

Firefighters pulled the body of an eight-year-old boy from the rubble of a house destroyed by a landslide.

Another landslide swept away everything in its path along a street on the side of a hill in the city’s Bethania neighborhood.

AFP images from the scene showed rubble from the houses poking up from the mud.

As of Sunday evening, one person from the area remained missing, though four members of the person’s family were rescued.

A body was also found in the nearby town of Santana do Paraiso.

Minas Gerais state governor Romeu Zema sent a message of “solidarity with the victims” in a statement on social media.

Latin America’s biggest country has been rocked by several extreme weather events over the past year.

Massive floods caused by days of record-breaking rain killed more than 180 people in the south of the country in April and May.

Brazil also suffered a historic drought linked to climate change, laying the ground for the worst wildfires in 17 years, which consumed vast chunks of the Amazon rainforest.