Atami, Japan: Authorities in a landslide-hit Japanese holiday town were trying to locate 80 residents on Monday as rescue teams trawled through the muddy debris looking for survivors.
Soldiers and emergency workers used hand-held poles and mechanical diggers in the desperate search, two days after a torrent of earth slammed down a mountainside and through part of the hot-spring resort of Atami in central Japan.
Three people have been confirmed dead, although authorities are struggling to pinpoint the whereabouts of dozens of residents as they scour the wreckage of 130 homes and other buildings that were destroyed.
Pylons were toppled, vehicles buried and buildings tipped from their foundations in the disaster, with aerial footage from the mountaintop showing a stark brown wedge gouged out of the green hillside.
"The number of those who are unaccounted for has now come to 80, down from 113. We are working hard to specify the figures as quickly as possible," Hiroki Onuma, a town disaster management spokesman, told AFP.
Authorities had initially said just 20 people were missing, but Atami mayor Sakae Saito said Sunday evening that was only an estimate based on an early assessment. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday that the focus was still on finding survivors, with hundreds of rescue workers "doing their best to rescue as many people as possible, as soon as possible".
The Saturday morning landslide descended in several violent waves during Japan’s annual rainy season, following days of intense downpours in and around Atami. Rescuers on Monday took advantage of a break in the rain to continue their search, wading through streams of murky water and moving blocks of timber and other debris out of the way.
Non-compulsory evacuation orders have been issued to more than 35,700 people across Japan, mostly in the Shizuoka region including Atami, which is around 90 kilometres (55 miles) southwest of Tokyo.
The weather agency forecast heavy rain in the wider region, warning that more landslides could take place. Atami reportedly recorded more rainfall in 48 hours than it usually does for the whole of July, and survivors told local media they had never experienced such strong rain in their lives.
A representational image showing migrants waiting to be disembarked from a British border force vessel in Dover,...
Smoke billows from a vehicle allegedly burned by the Meitei community tribals protesting to demand inclusion under the...
The collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge lies on top of the container ship Dali in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 29,...
Hope Hicks in 2018. She worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and in the White House during his presidency. — AFP...
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. — AFP FileLONDON: Britain’s opposition Labour Party won a parliamentary seat in...
Former British prime minister David Cameron. — AFP FileKYIV: Ukraine can use British weapons inside Russian...