Death toll from heavy rains rises to 27 in southeast Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO -- At least 27 people have died in southeast Brazil and six others remain missing due to heavy downpours that began on Friday, local media reported Monday.

Meanwhile, the heavy rains have forced more than 8,000 to flee their homes, the reports cited official sources as saying.

The states of Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro have been hardest hit, registering 19 and eight deaths respectively from flooding and landslides.

Heavy rains also lashed the states of Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo, with no casualties reported so far.

In the state of Rio de Janeiro, four members of one family died after a landslide buried their house in the city of Petropolis. Firefighters succeeded in rescuing a four-year-old girl from the building.

In Duque de Caxias, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, a truck driver drowned when his vehicle fell into a river, and in Arraial do Cabo, a municipality in Rio de Janeiro state, a man died from a lightning strike.