Context :

Aims : The aim of the project is to improve our current knowledge of the density of T dwarfs and the shape of the substellar initial mass function by identifying a magnitude-limited sample of T dwarfs in the full southern sky .

Methods : We present the results of a photometric search aimed at discovering cool brown dwarfs in the Southern sky imaged at infrared wavelengths by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ( VISTA ) and the Wide Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE ) satellite mission .
We combined the first data release ( DR1 ) of the VISTA Hemisphere Survey ( VHS ) and the WISE preliminary data release to extract candidates with red mid-infrared colours and near- to mid-infrared colours characteristics of cool brown dwarfs .

Results : The VHS DR1 vs .
WISE search returned tens of T dwarf candidates , 13 of which are presented here , including two previously published in the literature and five new ones confirmed spectroscopically with spectral types between T4.5 and T8 .
We estimate that the two T6 dwarfs lie within 16 pc and the T4.5 within 25 pc .
The remaining three are 30–50 pc distant .
The only T7 dwarf in our sample is the faintest of its spectral class with J = 19.28 mag .
The other six T dwarf candidates remain without spectroscopic follow-up .
We also improve our knowledge on the proper motion accuracy for three bright T dwarfs by combining multi-epoch data from public databases ( DENIS , 2MASS , VHS , WISE , Spitzer ) .

Conclusions :