At least 50 killed in 'historic floods' and landslides across Japan

At least 50 people have been killed and 48 are unaccounted for in western and central Japan as torrential rain continues to hit the area.

Most of the deaths have occurred in the Hiroshima prefecture, which has been hit by torrential rain since Thursday, turning city streets into rivers. Businesses have closed, factories have had to shut down production.

Hundreds of buildings have been damaged. About 1.5 million people have been ordered to leave their homes and three million more advised to do so.

Some of the victims have been buried alive by landslides, Japan's Kyodo news agency reports.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">People all over Japan are tweeting they’re pictures of the floods and landslides, plus sending warnings about where is safe and where is dangerous to go. These are from Hiroshima <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StaySafe?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#StaySafe</a> ❤️ <a href="https://t.co/7lmq0mkozJ">https://t.co/7lmq0mkozJ</a></p>— All Japan Tours (@AllJapanTours) <a href="https://twitter.com/AllJapanTours/status/1015614842806329345?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">July 7, 2018</a></blockquote>
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More rain is expected over the next few days. Japan's Meteorological Agency retained special weather warnings for three prefectures in the main island of Honshu, down from five, and urged vigilance against landslides, rising rivers and strong winds amid what it called "historic" rains.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference, "Heavy rain will continue in the area from western to eastern Japan, and it will be historic torrential rainfall which could be the heaviest rain ever recorded,"

Almost 50,000 police, firefighters and soldiers are responding to the emergency.

SOURCE: euronews
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