Tokyo : The death toll from catastrophic landslides in western Japan could more than double, police said, as the number of missing people rose to 52 in addition to the 39 confirmed dead, reports AFP.
Dozens of homes were destroyed when mountainsides collapsed on the outskirts of Hiroshima on Wednesday, sending tonnes of mud, rocks and debris crashing into suburban communities.
More than 4,000 people have now been ordered to evacuate their homes after forecasters warned more rain was on the way to already soaked hillsides, heaping misery on an area that has seen record downpours. Firefighters and soldiers were still keeping heavy machinery away from collapsed houses, preferring to remove debris by hand in the hope of finding survivors. But falling rain was complicating their task.