Brazil mudslide kills 39

Firefighters are searching for bodies in a sea of mud that fell on the coastal city of Angra dos Reis, 160km west of Rio de Janeiro, leaving at least 39 people dead.

Triggered by torrential rains, the mudslides forced about 1800 people from their homes and left the city strewn with tree trunks and branches torn from the hillsides.

Civil defence officials called it the worst disaster to hit the city of about 60,000 tucked between mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.