The city of Petropolis was slammed by a deluge on Tuesday before the mudslides began in the early hours of Wednesday.
Mayor Rubens Bomtempo said the number of dead could rise as searchers pick through the wreckage. Twenty-one people had been recovered alive.
Local Rosilene Virgilio, 49, was in tears as she recalled the desperate pleas from someone she couldn't save.
"There was a woman screaming, 'Help! Get me out of here!' But we couldn't do anything; the water was gushing out, the mud was gushing out," Virgilio told The Associated Press. "Our city unfortunately is finished."
Petropolis is a German-influenced city named for a former Brazilian emperor. Nestled in the mountains above the coastal metropolis, for almost two centuries it has been a refuge for people escaping summer heat and tourists keen to explore the so-called "Imperial City."
Petropolis was among the nation's first planned cities and features stately homes along its waterways. But its population has grown haphazardly, climbing mountainsides now covered with small residences packed tightly together. Many are in areas unfit for structures and rendered more vulnerable by deforestation and inadequate drainage.
The stricken mountain region has seen similar catastrophes in recent decades, including one that caused more than 900 deaths. Work to reduce risks of landslides has advanced slowly.
Governor Claudio Castro told reporters the situation "was almost like war" and that he was mustering all the state government's heavy machinery to help dig out the buried area.
The state fire department said the area received 25.8 centimetres of rain within three hours Tuesday - almost as much as during the previous 30 days combined.Â
Video posted on social media Tuesday showed cars and houses being dragged away by landslides, and water swirling through Petropolis and neighbouring districts.
Local television showed houses buried beneath mud in areas firefighters hadn't yet been able to access. Several streets remained inaccessible as cars and household goods piled up, blocking access to higher parts of the city.
Emerson Torre, 39, was sheltering with neighbours in his bar when, under torrents of water, his roof collapsed. He managed to get his mother and three other people out of the bar in time, but one neighbour and the person's daughter were unable to escape.
"It was like an avalanche, it fell all at once. I've never seen anything like it," Torre told the AP as rescue helicopters hovered overhead. "Every neighbour has lost a loved one, has lost two, three, four members of the same family, kids."
Petropolis' city hall declared three days of mourning. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro expressed solidarity while on a trip to Russia, as did his counterpart Vladimir Putin.
"May God comfort their family members," Bolsonaro told a press conference in Moscow.
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