The death toll from torrential downpours that triggered flash floods and landslides in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state rose to 16 Sunday, with three people still missing, authorities said.

Three days of heavy rain have battered a broad swathe of the southeastern state's Atlantic coast, the latest in a series of deadly storms in Brazil that experts say are being made worse by climate change.

Emergency workers pulled two more bodies early Sunday from the mud and wreckage left by a landslide in the Monsuaba neighborhood of Angra dos Reis, a seaside town 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Rio de Janeiro city, officials said.

In all, four children and four adults were killed there, the city government said. Emergency workers are still searching for three people reported missing in Monsuaba.

Another landslide in the picturesque colonial town of Paraty killed a mother and six of her children, aged two to 17.

A seventh child was rescued alive and taken to the hospital, where he was in stable condition, the mayor's office said.

In the Rio suburb of Mesquita, a 38-year-old man was electrocuted trying to help another person escape the flooding, officials and media reports said.

President Jair Bolsonaro said on Facebook the federal government had sent military aircraft to help the rescue effort and dispatched national disaster response secretary Alexandre Lucas to the state of 17.5 million people.

The new storms come six weeks after flash floods and landslides killed 233 people in the scenic city of Petropolis, the Brazilian empire's 19th-century summer capital, also in Rio state.

Australia landslide kills two British tourists
Sydney (AFP) April 5, 2022 –

A landslide struck a British family on holiday in Sydney, killing the father and his nine-year-old son while critically injuring the mother and another son, Australian police said Tuesday.

The family of five was caught by the landslide on Monday as they hiked along a popular trail in the Blue Mountains to the west of Australia's largest city.

Police said teams were still trying to recover the bodies of the father and son from the scene on Tuesday.

Rescuers rushed the mother and her 14-year-old son to hospital in Sydney on Monday evening, police said. They both underwent surgery and were in critical condition on Tuesday.

The couple's 15-year-old daughter was not injured and was walked out from the trail by emergency services, a police spokesperson said.

She is being assisted by the British consulate and welfare services.

Local police in the Blue Mountains were investigating the landslide and a report was to be prepared for the coroner on the two deaths.

The identity of the family has not been released.

Sydney has experienced heavy rains in recent weeks, with many suburbs in the city's west devastated by flash flooding and heavy storms.