Brazil Floods: Death toll reaches 610 n Pictures

RIO DE JANEIRO: (15 Jan 11) Devastating floods and mudslides in a mountainous region of Brazil near Rio de Janeiro has killed more than 610 people, Civil Defense officials said Saturday.

An estimated 14,000 people were assisted by rescue workers or lost their homes in the Serrana area towns hardest hit about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from coastal Rio, civil defense figures showed.

The single hardest hit town was Nova Friburgo, where 274 people were killed. Nearby Teresopolis had 263 dead, 55 were killed in Petropolis and 18 lost their lives in Sumidouro, officials said.

Workers transporting bodies said they feared the overall death toll could more than double as rescuers reached outlying hamlets in the country's worst flood disaster on record.