The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil's southern Rio Grande do Sul state jumped to 29 as of Thursday night, with another 60 people missing, according to the state's civil defence agency. The agency had said in its prior report, at noon, that 13 people were dead and 21 people missing, just slightly higher than the toll on Wednesday.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva travelled to the state on Thursday to meet with local authorities and express his solidarity. 'Everything that is within reach of our government will be done to attend to the needs of the people who are being affected by these rains,' he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Operators reported electricity and water cuts across the state, and officials detailed numerous incidents of flooded roads, landslides and collapsed bridges as water levels of rivers and streams rose sharply.