At least 104 people lost their lives after torrential rains hit the Brazilian city of Petropolis, triggering deadly landslides.
“Today I move bodies.
I extracted my mother's body”, testifies, in shock, Jose Carlos Paiva.
The man managed to extract his son from the gigantic mudslides and save him.
"I took him to the hospital," he explains.
He is fine ".
“People don't sleep because they stay awake, others continue to search, to cry out for their loved ones who have disappeared… It's very complicated”, says a resident, in tears.
35 people are still missing and actively sought by relief and volunteer residents.
On the evening of Tuesday, February 15, Petropolis suffered the “worst rains” in nearly a century.
Read alsoBrazil: at least 18 dead after torrential rains in the Bahia region
This disaster comes as Brazil is hit by a particularly severe rainy season, which scientists link to global warming.
The often wild urbanization of cities also favors deadly floods and landslides.
"We were warned that there would be a great tragedy, but no one ever believed it," laments a student.
It has never rained so much and suddenly, in less than five minutes, there was rain heavy enough to cause this whole disaster”.
A "state of calamity" and a three-day mourning were decreed.
From Moscow where he is visiting and before going to Petropolis on Friday,