Landslide Destroys a Hillside Slum Northwest of Rio, Killing at Least 37
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RIO DE JANEIRO — A landslide killed at least 37 people and buried scores more when it swept over a hillside shantytown in a southeastern city Wednesday, a rescue official said.
Rescuers worked through the night, digging through the mud and wreckage for the missing. Police said the death toll could rise to 150.
The disaster took place in an outlying district of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state about 290 miles northwest of Rio, Sgt. Esigenio da Luz of the local fire department said.
About 400 brick and wooden shacks were destroyed in the Barraginha slum, home to 1,000 of the shantytown’s 40,000 residents.
“There was a large tremor and a loud noise and then a wall of earth swept down the hill,” Luz said by telephone. “Those poor people never had a chance to get away.”
There was no official explanation for the landslide. The independent Jornal do Brasil news service reported that construction nearby caused the disaster.
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