Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide

Rescue workers in Brazil on Tuesday were searching for two people, including a six-year-old girl, after a landslide in its northern Amazonas state which injured a dozen others.

Monday's landslide triggered the collapse of a port on the Solimoes river, a tributary of the Amazon, in Manacapuru municipality, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the state capital Manaus.

Manacapuru police officer Mauro Soares said rescuers were searching the rubble and river for a man in his mid-thirties and a girl aged six.

Ten people were injured, two of whom were still being treated in hospital Tuesday for their injuries.

Images obtained by AFP showed some buildings teetering on the edge of a huge crater formed where the land collapsed into the river.

The authorities did not reveal the possible causes of the landslide.

But they warned that a severe drought in the Brazilian Amazon could cause riverbanks to collapse and cause a "natural disaster."

The deputy secretary of civil defense, Clovis Araujo, recommended that riverside communities implement "contingency plans" to avoid new tragedies.

Brazil has suffered in recent years from recurring landslides and floods caused by extreme weather events attributed to climate change.

Nearly nine million out of Brazil's 215 million inhabitants live in areas at risk of landslides or floods, according to official figures.

rsr/cb/nro