Streets turned into raging rivers in the state of Minas Gerais, with one resident seen clinging to an electricity pole while another waved for help from a window, in images shared by the fire brigade after the downpour began Monday.

The municipality of Juiz de Fora recorded 18 deaths and 40 missing and the city of Uba recorded seven deaths and three people missing, according to official figures.

On Tuesday, a sniffer dog scoured the debris and mud looking for victims, while hundreds of rescue workers and residents joined in the hunt for lost loved ones.

"We've been here since last night to see if they survive underground ... hope is the last thing to die," Livia Rosa, a 44-year-old seamstress with several relatives buried in the mud, told AFP.

In one of the worst hit areas of Juiz de Fora, the suburb of Parque Burnier, 12 homes were "swept away" in a "massive landslide", Major Demetrius Goulart of the fire brigade told AFP.

"Many people were inside their homes at night when it was raining," he said.

"We have hope. We found a boy this morning. He was inside a house, under the rubble. It took the team two hours of work" to get him out alive and he has been taken to hospital.

- Record rainfall -

Firefighters were responding to "flooding incidents, landslides, and structural risks along the banks and in areas near the Paraibuna River," which overflowed its banks, said Lieutenant Henrique Barcellos, spokesman for the Minas Gerais fire department.

Juiz de Fora's mayor, Margarida Salomao, declared a state of emergency.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his government recognized the state of emergency and placed the national civil defense on high alert.

"Our focus is to guarantee humanitarian assistance, the restoration of basic services, aid to displaced people, and support for reconstruction," he wrote on X.

Salamao said her municipality of a little over half a million people was experiencing its wettest February on record, with 584 millimeters (23 inches) of accumulated rainfall.

Some neighborhoods are isolated, with at least 20 landslides, Salomao said, calling the situation "extreme."

Her office said that an estimated 440 people had to leave their homes and were receiving support for temporary shelter.

State authorities suspended classes in all municipal schools.

Brazil has suffered various tragedies in recent years due to extreme weather events ranging from floods to drought and intense heat waves.

In 2024, more than 200 people died and two million were impacted by unprecedented flooding in southern Brazil, one of the worst natural disasters in its history.

Two years earlier, a deluge in the city of Petropolis outside Rio de Janeiro left 241 people dead.

Experts have linked most of these events to the effects of climate change.

Juiz de Fora is infamous as the location where far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen in 2018 while campaigning for election.