Rescuers search for survivors in landslide-hit Japan town

Atami, Japan: Rescuers in a Japanese holiday town hit by a deadly landslide were forced to suspend their search for survivors several times on Sunday as more rain lashed the devastated area.

Two women were confirmed dead after torrents of mud crashed through part of the hot-spring resort of Atami in central Japan on Saturday morning, following days of heavy downpours. Nineteen people have been rescued and around 20 others are still missing, the town’s disaster-management spokesman Yuta Hara told AFP.

"We are doing our best to rescue survivors while carefully checking the weather and other conditions," he said. Hara said around 130 homes and other buildings had been destroyed as the landslide swept through the residential area, leaving behind a quagmire that stretched down to the nearby coast.

Vehicles were buried and buildings tipped from their foundations, with an air-conditioning unit seen dangling from one devastated home towards the slurry below. Hara said the landslide was one kilometre (0.6 miles) long and 120 metres (400 feet) wide at some points.

Hundreds of rescue workers and military personnel were combing through the mud and debris with diggers and on foot, climbing across cracked roofs and sticking poles into the ground to check for bodies.

TV footage showed coast guard divers searching in murky seas, while police officers scoured damaged houses with sniffer dogs. Rain hampered rescue operations however, with workers forced to abandon the site multiple times as smaller landslides took place and disaster warning alerts were issued.

Survivors at a nearby evacuation centre told AFP of their panic when the landslide began. "When I opened the door, everyone was rushing into the street and a policeman came up to me and said: ‘What are you doing here, you have to hurry, everyone is evacuating!’" local resident Kazuyo Yamada said.