Despair hung over two cities in southeastern Brazil on Wednesday as rescuers and residents searched for 21 people missing after torrential rains unleashed flooding and landslides that killed at least 46.

A violent downpour on Monday in the state of Minas Gerais turned streets into raging rivers and led to landslides that swept away houses and buried dozens of people.

The worst-hit city was Juiz de Fora, where 40 people were killed, while nearby Uba saw six deaths, according to the latest official tally from rescue services.

More heavy rain was forecast for Juiz de Fora this week, and firefighters said it was unlikely any more victims would be found alive.

"Our family is desperate," said Josiane Aparecida, a 43-year-old cook in Juiz de Fora.

Her aunt died in a landslide and her cousin was found alive but died at a hospital.

Aparecida was still looking for her cousin's two children, ages six and nine, and boyfriend.

"We have hope, and yet we don't, because it's so difficult (to find them), and we've already lost two," she said.

A few blocks away, rescuers recovered the body of a man who, before he was killed, managed to pull his wife from their house which was engulfed by a landslide, said firefighters.

In the city of Uba, a two-hour drive away, residents were covered in mud as they cleared sludge from a river that had burst its banks.

Felippe Souza Lima, 30, owner of a hardware store now surrounded by muddy water and debris, said the gravity of the situation sank in when he saw two people floating past on a canoe on Monday night.

"Our door was blown open, so it was chaos. We lost a lot of things, the water must have reached a metre and a half. But what matters is that everyone is okay, everyone is alive."

He said the flooding of the Uba River was unprecedented in his lifetime.

"We've seen other similar floods, and the vast majority of them stopped at the riverbank."

The mayor of Juiz de Fora, Margarida Salomao, said the municipality had experienced its wettest February on record.

In 2024, more than 200 people died and two million were impacted by unprecedented flooding in southern Brazil, one of the worst natural disasters in its history.

Two years earlier, a deluge in the city of Petropolis outside Rio de Janeiro left 241 people dead. (AFP)



Edited by Cecil Wong