Death toll climbs after Brazil landslides

The death toll from floods and landslides around the Rio de Janeiro area has reached 184 and was expected to rise further today as searchers continued looking for bodies.

Morning rain threatened to set off new slides even as emergency crews used excavating equipment to search for victims at the most devastated site – a slum built on a rubbish dump that was buried by a landslide.

Crews have pulled 17 bodies from the debris so far at the site in Niteroi, next to Rio. Authorities fear the death toll from the Niteroi slide alone could be as many as 200, though it is not clear exactly how many people were buried beneath the mud.

The latest confirmed death toll of 184 was released by the fire department. A statement from firefighters added that 161 people have been injured.

Most of the victims were swept away in landslides that roared through slums built on steep, unstable hillsides.