At least two people have been killed and 18 others are missing in huge floods that are surging through southern Japan, with authorities warning hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
Unprecedented torrential rain has caused rivers to burst their banks, sweeping away roads and houses, and destroying schools.
Thousands of soldiers and other rescuer workers yesterday were scrambling to reach people cut off by torrents of swirling water or threatened by landslides, as forecasters warned of worse to come.
Photo: AFP
“We are in an extremely serious situation,” Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said, warning of the danger of collapsing hillsides.
“Many people are still missing,” Aso added.
More than 50cm of rain deluged parts of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, over 12 hours on Wednesday, the meteorological agency said.
Downpours are likely to continue today, it said, as the region grapples with the aftermath of a typhoon that raked the nation this week.
Authorities lifted “special” heavy rain warnings for the hardest hit prefectures of Fukuoka and Oita, although lesser warnings remained in place.
Japan is deploying 7,500 police, rescue personnel and troops in affected areas of Kyushu, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
“There is a lot of information about people who are unaccounted for,” he told a press conference, declining to confirm the number of people missing.
Those included a child reportedly carried off by a fast-flowing river and a couple who had not been seen since their house was swept away.
A man was found dead in the city of Asakura in Fukuoka, public broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press reported, citing police sources.
NHK and Jiji also reported that a man died in a landslide in Hita, Oita, but an official there could not immediately confirm it.
Local officials said in total they knew of 18 people who were missing in Fukuoka and Oita.
In related news, the death toll from worsening monsoon floods in India’s Assam state has hit 18, with hundreds of thousands in makeshift camps and no letup in the deluge, officials said yesterday.
“Monsoons are still ongoing. There are fresh developments every hour,” Rajib Prakash Barua, a senior Assam State Disaster Management Authority official, said as he confirmed the latest death on Wednesday.
The 18 people have died since the monsoons started in the northeastern state in April, said Barua, speaking from the city of Guwahati.
“One person died yesterday, taking the overall death toll in the last week to five. Most people died either because of flooding or electrocution,” he added.
Officials say about 395,000 people have so far been affected in 863 villages across Assam’s 15 districts.
Many people have moved to makeshift camps set up by authorities on higher ground.
More storms were predicted for today and coming days.
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