Huge landslides in western Japan killed at least 32 people and left another nine missing yesterday, authorities said, after mud engulfed homes in a suffocating sludge.
Dozens of houses were buried when hillsides collapsed after torrential downpours in Hiroshima, television pictures showed, leaving rescuers to pick through the devastation for any signs of life.
A spokesman for the Hiroshima Police said the death toll was still climbing.
Photo: Reuters
“The figures may change as the rescue efforts continue,” he said.
The number of dead had risen rapidly from an initial four, which included a two-year-old boy.
Among the dead was a 53-year-old rescuer, who was killed by a secondary landslide after he had pulled five people to safety, the Japanese Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
Aerial footage showed several houses buried in thick slurry, their wooden frames splintered by the weight of the mud.
Torrents of brown water raced off the mountains behind the homes and through the wrecked buildings, hampering rescuers’ efforts as they searched for anyone still trapped.
Emergency workers were seen climbing up to the second floor and roofs of half-collapsed houses — some of which were floating — to try to reach any survivors.
Pictures showed there had been at least five different landslides. Some uprooted trees and carried rocks down the hillside into the tightly packed houses that sit on the edge of a commuter belt, in an area where town gives way to farmland.
One man, gesturing to the mud-covered remains of a house, told NHK: “My house is over there, flattened.”
Pointing elsewhere, he said: “A leg was seen [sticking out of the mud] and they are trying to confirm if the person is alive. The first thing we have to do is to help that person.”
Another man told reporters he had seen everything he owned swept away.
“We could hear the earth rumbling and all of a sudden, things roared past us,” he said.
A woman spoke of how she had escaped death because of where she had been at the time the disaster struck.
“I was able to survive as I stayed in the middle of the house. Both sides were destroyed,” she said.
Troops were deployed to help in the rescue after a request from the local government.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who abandoned a golfing holiday to deal with the disaster, said considerable resources were pressed into action.
“I have ordered [government officials] to carry out the rescue operation in an integrated manner, aware of the possibility of further rain,” he told reporters in Tokyo.
“I also ordered them to raise the number of Self-Defense Force [Japanese military] personnel to several hundred in order to strengthen rescue operations,” he said.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS