Rio Landslide Death Toll Hits At Least 246, Authorities Confirm - 200 More Missing In Nearby Town

Landslides triggered by pounding rain in Rio de Janeiro last week killed at least 246 people, officials said Tuesday, adding that the city's famous Christ statue was cut off for the first time in its eight-decade history.

The rise in the death toll reflected the discovery of more bodies in the wreckage of shantytowns knocked off their precarious mountainside perches by the landslides.

Searches were continuing for around another 200 people still missing in Rio's satellite town of Niteroi.

The statue of Christ the Redeemer, the landmark monument that dominates Rio, was isolated by nearly 300 landslides on and around the Corcovado mountain on which it sits, the official in charge of the surrounding forest, Bernardo Issa, told the daily O Globo. The road and trainline that each year carry two million tourists a year to see the statue were covered in layers of mud and rocks.

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http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Brazil_flood_toll_rises_to_246_Rios_Christ_statue_cut_off_999.html