Two buildings in Rio collapsed: at least two dead

Two small buildings in Rio de Janeiro collapsed on Friday, leaving at least two dead and two injured, the Brazilian authorities said. The collapse occurred in a western part of the city, particularly affected by heavy rains this week, which caused severe flooding and killed at least 10 people.

A spokesman for the firefighters told The Associated Press that two bodies had been found and the area was being cordoned off for inspection. According to the protocol of the agency, the spokesman asked not to be identified. It was not known for the moment how many people were inside when the buildings collapsed.

Images from Globo Television showed neighbors walking on the rubble, apparently looking for survivors. Structural collapses are common in Brazil, which suffers from infrastructure problems in many areas, exacerbated by corruption and lack of supervision.