Twenty people are missing in central Japan after a huge landslide hit Atami city following heavy rainfall.
Several houses were destroyed or buried from a torrent of black mud plummeting down from a mountain top and on through the city towards the sea which was shown in video’s on social media.
Two bodies have been found by the coast guard, the local governor said.
Japan is a very mountainous and densely populated country and landslides are not unusual. But there speculation that climate change could be making these sorts of extreme weather events more frequent and more destructive.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has put together a taskforce to respond to the disaster and the wider emergency caused by heavy rainfall on the Pacific coastline.
Police, firefighters and members of Japan’s military are involved in a search operation.
Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of residents in three prefectures – Shizuoka, Kanagawa and Chiba – have been ordered to evacuate following warnings of further flooding in low-lying areas.
Last July dozens were killed in flooding. More than 200 died in 2018 when parts of western Japan were inundated.
