A rare cyclone that brought hurricane-like winds to southern Brazil killed at least two people, injured about 80 and forced some 30,000 people to leave their homes, the authorities said on Sunday.

Civil Defense Capt. Marcio Luiz Alves said winds, rain and waves destroyed about 500 homes and damaged some 20,000 in Santa Catarina state and an estimated 30,000 people found shelter in public buildings or with relatives and friends.

A tree that fell on a moving car in Santa Catarina killed the driver and seriously injured his wife. Two fishing boats sunk off the Santa Catarina coast and 11 people from the boats missing were feared dead, Alves said. In neighboring Rio Grande do Sul state, one person died and 1,500 people were made homeless, state authorities said. Damage assessment would continue on Monday, Alves said, and the numbers could rise as the authorities still could not contact some remote towns due to communication breakdowns.

Brazil's official weather service denied the weather phenomenon, which dissipated by Sunday night, was Brazil's first hurricane as U.S. meteorologists said earlier, but did acknowledged winds were too strong for a common cyclone. ?It was born as an extratropical cyclone that we know, but then it started changing, becoming an atypical and abnormal case,? said Gustavo Escobar, a meteorologist with the state Weather Forecasting and Climatic Studies Center. According to some reports, winds from the weather phenomenon dubbed Catarina by local meteorologists gusted at hurricane speed of up to 150 kph in some areas of Santa Catarina in the early hours of Sunday, whipping up five-metre waves.