At least 237 people were reported to have died in the Serrana mountain region north of Rio Tuesday and Wednesday after extremely heavy tropical rain sent hillsides sliding into towns and rivers broke their banks.

"I've only ever seen this before on television. It's like a horror film. Houses, cars were carried away by torrents of water. It was terrifying," said a 55-year-old maid who gave her first name as Angela.

The death toll climbed dramatically through the day as reinforced rescue teams totaling over 800 men finally managed to get through to devastated remote areas.

A sharp rise, from 170 previously given by local authorities and media, came as the television station GloboNews counted 97 dead in one town, Novo Friburgo, up from seven earlier.

The collapse of the telephone system and roads to Nova Friburgo made it impossible to immediately confirm the figure.

The dead included three firemen engulfed in mud as they tried to carry out a rescue, the local civil defense chief, Roberto Robadey, told the news website G1.

The worst hit town, Teresopolis, counted 114 deaths, according to a tally given to AFP by the mayor's office.

"It's the worst catastrophe in Teresopolis's history," the state environment secretary, Carlos Minc, said.

Petropolis, in the same mountain region, suffered 18 deaths, the municipality told AFP.

The deaths added to 13 counted in Sao Paulo Monday and Tuesday, bringing the overall death toll for southeast Brazil to 152 so far this week.

Teresopolis's mayor, Jorge Mario, told the GloboNews television station: "It's a huge catastrophe, a major disaster."

The town is historically important, having started out as a 19th century getaway for the rulers of Brazil's short-lived empire.

Images from helicopters showed torrents of water cascading down mountains over his town of 180,000 people, and houses swamped in tons of mud.

Mario said around 1,000 people had been left homeless and dozens of bridges and roads had been destroyed.

He warned the death toll could rise even further as emergency crews made it through to remote stricken areas.

A local civil defense chief, Colonel Flavo Castro, called on locals "to take refuge in safe places: churches, schools."

He said a helicopter was being used to evacuate people cut off.

Angela, the maid, watched as 20 neighbors in her district perished.

"I walked on something soft and saw it was the body of a woman covered in mud. She had her arm over her face like she was trying to protect herself," Angela said, sobbing.

A nearby church was being used as a makeshift morgue. An AFP photographer saw several children among the bodies inside.

"One woman tried to save her children but her two-month-old baby was carried away by a torrent like a doll," said Angela.

Her husband Leandro said: "In 50 years, this is the first time the rains have caused such damage."

The federal government of President Dilma Rousseff has freed up 420 million dollars in emergency aid to help the region, the state news agency Agencia Brasil said.

Heavy rains common during Brazil's summer wet season were intensified this week by a cold front which doubled the usual precipitation.

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