Floor By Floor Search For Flood Victims In Brazil's Porto Alegre

The search and rescue task is complex in the state capital, Porto Alegre -- a city with many tall buildings, wide avenues, and some 1.4 million inhabitants (Credit: AFP)

From top to bottom, rescuers scour buildings in Porto Alegre for inhabitants stuck in apartments or on rooftops as unprecedented flooding turned the streets of the Brazilian metropolis into rivers.

In the state capital's Sarandi neighborhood, firefighters first evacuated people who had found refuge on the roofs of apartment buildings, then went in for those on the higher floors inside.