The number of people who died in floods which devastated Japan this week reached five yesterday as rescuers continued their search for more than a dozen still missing.
Police said they found the body of a 68-year-old man in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, early yesterday morning, the fifth located in the rescue operation.
The body was reportedly found inside a submerged car at a water-covered rice field in the town that also suffered floods.
HOTO: AFP
Police also discovered another body of a man in the afternoon in a rice field of most severely hit Joso, a community of 65,000 residents, parts of which were washed away on Thursday when a levee on the Kinugawa River gave way, flooding an area that reportedly spans 32km2 after the worst rains in decades.
“We’re still investigating the identity of the body and whether the death is related to the flooding,” police said.
Four days have passed since the flooding, but search operations continued yesterday with a total of 1,800 rescuers including police, firefighters and the Self-Defense Forces scrabbling to find 15 people still missing from the town, public broadcaster NHK said.
The clock is ticking as the area expected heavy rain last night, which would further spread the water damage.
Officials said more than 2,100 people were still at evacuation facilities in Joso yesterday morning as over 4,000 houses were submerged and water supply was cut off.
The number of missing in Joso dropped from 22 to 15 on Saturday after police found more people alive, including two eight-year-old children. In Kanuma city, north of Joso, a 63-year-old woman was killed in a landslide, while a 48-year-old woman was also found dead in Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan.
The third victim was a 25-year-old man helping to clear clogged drains in the city of Nikko, which is known for its historic shrines. Police also found the body of a man in another river in Miyagi who was believed to be a 62-year-old missing from the prefecture, according to local media.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was