Tokyo, Japan (Reuters) — The death toll in western Japan’s flooding disaster has risen to at least six, a government spokesman said on Friday (July 7), while thousands of rescuers, some in helicopters, searched for survivors.
Parts of Fukuoka, on the southwestern island of Kyushu, were hit by 593 mm (23 inches) of rain in the 48 hours to 9:00 a.m. Friday (midnight GMT), well over the rainfall of a usual July, the meteorological agency said.
More than 22 people could not be reached, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Friday, while rescuers had saved more than 500 people so far.
Around 12,300 soldiers, policemen and firemen waded through mud and climbed over piles of splintered wood to reach several hundred people cut off by landslides.