Residents searched through mud and debris looking for bodies of their loved ones after landslides touched off by torrential rain slammed into the outskirts of the western Japanese city of Hiroshima Wednesday, swallowing up homes including several children, police said.
After a month's worth of rain fell overnight, loosening slopes already saturated by heavy rain over the past few weeks, the landslides killed at least 27 people and left 13 people missing, Reuters reported. "There was rain and thunder all night, beating down so hard I was scared to go outside," a resident told Fuji TV. "Great big drops. I've never seen anything like this."
However, authorities fear the number could be much higher since the landslides hit a crowded residential area, CNN reported.
As rescue workers searched through mud and piles of stones in residential areas about 5 km (3 miles) from the city center, helicopters lifted out survivors, including a two-year-old boy and his eleven-year-old brother, whose house was struck as they slept. Both were pronounced dead on the scene.
According to the Meteorological Agency, in the last 24 hours up to Wednesday morning, the area received 9.5 inches (240 mm) of rain, record-breaking levels equivalent to a month's worth of rain in a usual August, the Kyodo news agency said.
"With land in short supply in many parts of Japan and heavy rains pounding the area, cities often expand into mountainous areas, leaving such development vulnerable to landslides," according to Reuters. "Asphalt roads crumbled under the force of one landslide, while streams of mud cut swathes through neighborhoods, turning houses into piles of twisted wreckage."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut short his summer vacation to head back to Tokyo, stating that he would dispatch several hundred military personnel to help with rescue efforts.
In 1999, landslides killed 31 people in Hiroshima, according to Reuters.
