Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Japan
Thousands flee as floods hit Japan
More than 400,000 people were told to leave their homes in Japan to avoid possible disaster. The death toll remains at 20, with nine people reported missing.
ABOUT 400,000 PEOPLE were ordered or advised to leave their homes in southwest Japan today.
AFP reports that heavy rain pounded four prefectures in Kyushu for a third day, leaving 29 dead or missing.
A video filmed by BBC news shows muddy rushing water engulfing buildings and homes. Debris is swept along in the torrent.
Fukuoka prefecture spokesman Hiroaki Aoki told AFP by telephone:
Two men were rescued from landslides but their conditions were not immediately available. One woman was still trapped. I don’t remember any flooding which stretched over such a wide area in our prefecture.
The death toll remained at 20 overnight, with nine people reported missing. Two people were listed as missing today after a 30-year-old man fell into a swelling river in his car in Oita and a 83-year-old woman was buried in a landslide in Fukuoka.
TIME reported that self-defence soldiers were deployed to search for those said to be missing after landslides.
- Additional reporting by © AFP, 2012
have your say