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Agence France-Presse

Huge landslides in western Japan killed at least 39 people and left another seven missing on Wednesday, the government said, after a wall of 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.
Watch: Dozens dead as Japan landslides engulf homes

“According to the National Police Agency, the death toll has risen to 27 and 10 others are still unaccounted for,” said an official of the disaster management office, a government body.
The number of dead had risen rapidly from an initial toll of 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 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.”
Troops deployed
Troops were deployed to help in the rescue after a request from the local government.
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-Defence Force [military] personnel to several hundred in order to strengthen rescue operations,” he said, adding he would be sending one of his ministers to the site.

Japan’s weather agency warned more heavy rain was on the way to the area, raising the risk of further landslides in places where tonnes of mud have already been displaced.
The archipelago has been battered in recent weeks by unusually heavy rain that has sparked a number of smaller landslides and several floods, some of which have claimed lives.
Despite widespread concreting to shore up hillsides, mountainous and densely populated Japan is prone to this kind of disaster.
In October last year, dozens of people were killed when the torrential rains of a passing typhoon triggered large landslides on the island of Oshima, south of Tokyo.
Hiroshima is no stranger to tragedy like this.
In 1999 more than 320 landslides hit the city, including the area affected on Wednesday, killing more than 30 people.
Around 32,000 areas in the locality are designated as at risk from landslides.
Experts said many of the hills are composed of fragmented granite, which can become unstable when waterlogged.


Scores killed or missing as huge landslide engulfs Hiroshima suburb

Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers and police officers search for survivors at the site where a landslide swept through a residential area at Asaminami ward in Hiroshima. Photo: Reuters

A local resident is lifted by a rescue helicopter from an area where a landslide swept through a residential area in Hiroshima. Photo: Reuters

Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers search for survivors at the site. Photo: Reuters 

Rescuers said the victims included a two-year-old child and a 77-year-old woman. Photo: Kyodo

Residential areas of Hiroshima have been flooded by torrential rain. Photo: Kyodo

Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers carry the body of a victim at a site where a landslide swept through a residential area at Asaminami ward in Hiroshima. Photo: Reuters

Rescue workers walk pass damaged cars. Photo: EPA

A local resident walks on a flooded street. Photo: Reuters

Typhoon Halong blamed for 10 deaths and dozens of injuries in Japan

Damaged houses in Mibu, in eastern Tochigi prefecture. Photo: Kyodo

Japan orders 1.6m to flee Typhoon Halong; one dead, travel chaos

Typhoon Halong is lashing Japan as it enters a holiday week, injuring six people and causing authorities to order the evacuation of half a million people near swollen rivers. Photo: AP

Hundreds of flights are cancelled due to Typhoon Halong, stranding Obon summer holiday goers. Photo: EPA

Typhoon Halong was churning toward Japan's southern main island of Kyushu with heavy rains threatening to trigger landslides. Photo: AFP/EUMETSAT 2014

Women struggle with strong winds and rain caused by Typhoon Halong in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Hundreds of flights are cancelled due to Typhoon Halong, stranding Obon summer holiday goers. Photo: AFP

An aerial view of farmlands flooded by the Naka river is seen (top) after Typhoon Halong hit in Anan, Tokushima prefecture on August 10, 2014. Photo: Reuters/Kyoto

News

Asia

Torrential downpours loosed waves of mud onto dense neighbourhoods


Huge landslides in western Japan killed at least 39 people and left another seven missing on Wednesday, the government said, after a wall of mud engulfed homes in a suffocating sludge.


.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Update | Scores killed or missing as huge landslide engulfs Hiroshima suburb

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Torrential downpours loosed waves of mud onto dense neighbourhoods

Update | Scores killed or missing as huge landslide engulfs Hiroshima suburb

Torrential downpours loosed waves of mud onto dense neighbourhoods