This chilling footage shows how a woman who tried to cross the road slipped and was swept by raging floodwaters underneath a car, where she drowned.

The tragedy unfolded in Sao Carlos, south-eastern Brazil, on Wednesday afternoon (28th December) following extreme rains that caused flooding in the city.

CCTV footage shows how the woman fell – possibly while inadvertently stepping into a pothole – while crossing the road, which resembled a flowing river.

She was swept down the road by the current and ended up trapped underneath a car.

As the obstacle turned the flow into a fountain, she became completely submerged by the muddy water.

Local residents could be seen rushing over to help her as the flooding partly subsided, but by that point, she was motionless.

Local woman Aline de Oliveira Silva told media that she had been walking down the street with a friend when she saw a black blouse poking out from underneath the parked Chevrolet Monza.

Chillingly, as she got closer, she had noticed a hand.

She had then called out to two nearby motorcyclists for assistance.

Aline told local media: “Her body was already purple. It all happened very quickly. We got desperate, we were hoping she was alive.”

The locals carried the limp woman to the garage of a nearby house.

But when paramedics arrived on the scene, they were only able to pronounce her dead.

Local media reported that the now-deceased woman had been warned by locals not to cross the road due to the danger, but she had ignored the warnings.

The people who tended to the woman did not recognise her and, at the time of reporting, her identity remained unknown.