**Officials are trying to restore order in the Rio de Janiero area of Brazil after more than 100 people were killed in landslides and floods.**Rio’s mayor said road conditions had improved, but he urged people not to travel as many areas remained flooded.
People living on hillsides were told to leave their homes for fear of more landslides. All schools were closed.
Rescue workers are searching for 49 people declared missing in the wake of the rains, the heaviest in decades.
The authorities on Wednesday raised the death toll to more than 100 people.
They said at least 37 were killed in Rio de Janeiro city after 28cm (11in) of rain fell in 24 hours, but the neighbouring city of Niteroi was the hardest hit, with 53 deaths.
A state of emergency has been declared in the region and officials have warned the death toll may rise as many more are missing.
Rains easing
Weather forecasters are predicting that the rain will continue for the next few days, but with less intensity than that seen in the past 48 hours, the BBC’s Paulo Cabral reports from Brazil’s second-largest city.
The water is now receding, and some buses, taxis and trains are operating, local reports said.
Schools will remain closed until at least Friday, but several government offices have re-opened.
“The city is starting to return to normal, but the rains are still intense,” Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes told reporters at an early morning news conference on Wednesday.
He called on those living in hillside slums - which are at risk of mudslides because the soil is still extremely wet - to leave their homes, warning that their lives were at risk.
Most of those who died over the past two days were people who lived in favelas (shanty towns), where many houses were buried under mudslides.
The mayor said on Tuesday that 1,200 people had been made homeless and that 10,000 houses remained at risk, mostly in the slums where about a fifth of Rio’s people live.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was visiting the city on Tuesday, said little could be done until the rain let up.
“All we can do is pray to God to hold back the rains a little, so that Rio can return to normal, and so that we can set about fixing the things in the city that need fixing,” he told local radio.
A period of three days official mourning has been declared by the governor of Rio de Janeiro state.
The area has experienced a particularly hot and rainy summer this year, and meteorologists have forecast more rain in the coming days. However, correspondents say heavy rain is more common in January than in April.
In January, at least 39 people were killed by mudslides in the resort area of Angra dos Reis, half way between Rio de Janeiro and Santos.
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