Rio de Janeiro's towering Christ the Redeemer statue has been closed to the public after landslides² that hit Brazil, killing³ some 250 people.

由于发生山体滑坡事故，里约热内卢高耸的救世基督像暂时停止对公众开放，据悉此次事故导致250人死亡。

The iconic Christ the Redeemer statue has towered over Rio de Janeiro for the past eight decades

Access to the statue was cut off for the first time in its 80-year history as roads were blocked by debris⁴（碎片，残骸） .

More bodies have been uncovered as rescue workers search through the wreckage⁵ of shanty⁶（棚屋） towns buried after torrential rain（暴雨，骤雨） caused the mudslides.

The death toll⁷（死亡人数） may rise as 200 people are still missing, officials say.

They have also warned that further landslides are possible, given（考虑到） the saturated⁸ soil（饱和土壤） .

Analysts⁹ say ramshackle（摇晃的，放荡的） shanty towns built on steep hills are most at risk. Most of the landslide¹ victims were residents of shanty towns, where about a fifth of Rio de Janeiro's population live.

On Tuesday, search crews found more bodies buried in homes by a massive landslide that hit a shanty town outside Rio de Janeiro city.

Indefinite closure

Towering over Rio de Janeiro, the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue was named one of the new wonders of the world in 2007, and is visited by two million tourists a year.

It was cut off when Tijuca National Park's Corcovado mountain on which it sits was hit by severe mudslides, park officials said.

Park director Bernard Issa said he hoped it would reopen "within one or two months".

The landslides in and around Brazil's second biggest city were set off by downpours that began last Monday - the area's heaviest rainfall for decades.

Work is under way to clear the debris and mend roads, and Rio de Janeiro state's governor said as many as 150 bodies could still be underneath¹⁰ the mud in the Morro do Bumba shanty town.

Set in the municipality（自治市或区，市政当局） of Niteroi, across the bay from the city of Rio, Morro do Bumba was built on top of a disused（废弃不用的） landfill, making it prone¹¹ to（有……倾向） landslides.

Rio de Janeiro's Mayor, Eduardo Paes, said families were being evacuated¹²（疏散，撤离） from high-risk areas.

He said 4,000 families had been made homeless and 10,000 houses remained at risk.

Mr Paes estimated the total cost of repair work would be at least $113m (£73m).