At least eight people died, including four girls, as a result of the collapse of a hill that buried a neighborhood in the eastern part of Manaus, capital of the state of Amazonas, in northern Brazil, a spokesman for the fire department said.
The tragedy occurred due to heavy rains and the accumulation of household waste in the eastern part of Manaus, according to authorities.
The event occurred last night in the Nova Floresta neighborhood, a poor community living in precarious conditions in an area at risk of landslides in Manaus, the most populous city in the South American Amazon jungle region.
The rains in Brazil this summer caused more than two hundred victims throughout the country.
The most serious incident occurred in February with 64 deaths in the coastal municipality of Sao Sebastiao, in the state of São Paulo, as a result of avalanches that buried precarious neighborhoods in risk areas.
The mayor of Manaus, David Almeida, of the right-wing Avante party, reported that Civil Defense had not been alerted to problems in that neighborhood.
“The information we have is that the large accumulation of garbage that was in the neighborhood plus the heavy rains caused the landslides,” he explained to the Bandeirantes news channel.
The Minister of Integration and Regional Development, Waldez Goes, reported that there are at least 4 million Brazilians residing in risk areas due to lack of housing solutions in 14,000 points considered critical, especially favelas built on hillsides with the possibility of landslides due to tropical rains.