Footage shows a man narrowly avoiding falling into a river in southern Brazil as a motorway bridge gave way on Tuesday.

Heavy rains - triggering huge floods in the state of Rio Grande do Sul - have killed 39 people, with 68 still missing, local officials say.

Tens of thousands have fled their homes and there have been power cuts and water outages.

On Thursday, a hydroelectric dam between the municipality of Cotiporã and the city of Bento Gonçalves collapsed, causing a two-metre (6.6ft) wave and plunging towns under water.

The extreme weather has been caused by a rare combination of hotter-than-average temperatures, high humidity and strong winds.

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