At least 29 dead, 60 still missing after heavy rains in southern Brazil

More than 10,000 people have been forced from their homes, according to the civil defence agency

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Eraldo Peres/AP)

The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil’s southern Rio Grande do Sul state jumped to 29 as of Thursday night, with another 60 people missing, according to the state’s civil defence agency.

The agency had said in its prior report, at noon, that 13 people were dead and 21 people missing, just slightly higher than the toll on Wednesday.