Two people have died in a landslide in Japan on Saturday, several have been missing and six have been rescued, local officials said.
After heavy rains for several days, a huge landslide swept several Atami houses west of Tokyo on Saturday morning. Officials initially reported about 20 people missing.
In the evening, the Japanese TV channel TBS reported that six people had been rescued and their lives were not in danger.
“I heard a terrible noise and saw a mudslide flowing down as rescue workers urged people to evacuate. So I ran to a higher place,” a local resident told NHK.
“When I returned, the houses and cars in front of the temple were gone,” he added.
A stream of mud rushed down the hill through the city towards the sea, completely destroying ten buildings on its way and damaging more than 300 buildings.
Police, firefighters and the army are involved in the rescue operation.
More than 2,800 households in the region have been left without electricity supply, the energy company TEPCO reported.
Most of Japan is currently experiencing an annual rainy season that lasts for several weeks and often causes floods and landslides.
Experts believe that climate change has exacerbated this phenomenon.
Hundreds of thousands have been ordered to evacuate to safer places in the prefectures of Shizuoka, Kanagawa and Chiba at risk of flooding.
In 2018, more than 200 people lost their lives in the floods in western Japan, but dozens died last year.
Atami killed 313 millimeters of rain in 24 hours, more than the average for July, NHK reported.
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