RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people died and two others were hurt in floods that hit Brazilian state of Riode Janeiro on Saturday and Sunday, said Colonel Jose Sant'Ana Mateus from the state's Civil Defense Authority.

    Most of the victims were in the hillside neighborhood of Madame Machado, where rains caused mudslides and flooding. Some of the dead were buried alive in their homes. A car was also buried by landslides.

    Three members of one family died in one incident in Itaipava, mountain town 70 km from state capital Rio de Janeiro. They were two brothers aged 5 and 12 and their 70-year-old grandmother.

    The Civil Defense authority said the equivalent of three week's of rain had fallen in just a few hours.

    "To give you an idea, 13 mm of an hour of water fell on neighboring Petropolis and in Itaipava more than 135 mm fell in less than an hour. It was a completely extreme situation and that is why there were deaths," he said.

    Fire crews have had to use boats to rescue residents from their flooded homes. The rains also caused nearly 1 km of the Petropolis-Teresopolis to sink.