President Xi Jinping sent a message of sympathy to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday over casualties caused by heavy rainfall in Brazil.

Xi said he was shocked to learn that the heavy rainfall in the state of Rio de Janeiro has caused major casualties and property losses. He extended his profound condolences over the lives lost and expressed his heartfelt sympathies to family members of the victims and the missing, as well as people in the disaster-hit region.

Xi also expressed his wishes for the speedy recovery of people injured in the disaster.

The death toll from mudslides and floods in Brazil's city of Petropolis rose to 117 on Thursday, with the number expected to increase further as the region reels from the heaviest rains in almost a century.

More than 700 people had to leave their homes and take shelter in local schools and other makeshift accommodation. Rio de Janeiro Governor Claudio Castro compared the damage to a war zone on Wednesday.

The local morgue was forced to use a refrigerated truck as a backup during the day as more victims were being brought in, while other bodies remained to be identified by their families.

The downpours, which on Tuesday alone exceeded the average for the entire month of February, caused mudslides that flooded streets, destroyed homes, washed away cars and buses, and left gashes hundreds of meters wide on the region's mountainsides.

It was the heaviest rainfall registered in Petropolis since 1932. A tourist destination in the hills of Rio de Janeiro, Petropolis is popularly known as the "Imperial City" as it was the summer getaway of Brazilian royalty in the 19th century.

China Daily and Agencies