Landslide Horror: 36 People Including Children Crushed in Japan

katzmeow · #1 ● 08-20-2014, 11:16 AM

AT LEAST 36 people including children have been killed in landslides that struck on the outskirts of Hiroshima in Japan.

The landslides happened in a residential area near a mountain after the equivalent of a month's rain fell in 24 hours.
Images from the scene showed houses buried in mud and rocks, as rescue teams worked their way towards homes.
Another seven people were still missing following the landslides this morning.
A local government official said some people were swept away and it was "hard to know exactly how many are unaccounted for".
Several of those killed were children.
One of the youngest victims was a two-year-old boy.
Among the dead was a 53-year old rescue worker who died when the hillside collapsed again, said authorities. He had pulled five people to safety during the operation.
One survivor said: "I woke up in the middle of the night and the corridor to the living room of my house was already flooded."
"I heard the sound of water coming in, and then the water from the river rushed into my house, so I just took the car and rushed out."
A university professor in Hiroshima, JJ Walsh, said that everyone was surprised by the scale of the storm.
"Most people here are used to heavy rain. We have a rainy season. But I think everybody was pretty caught off guard by how much rain it was," she said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had asked local officials to "raise the number of [military] personnel to several hundred in order to strengthen rescue operations".
More rain could trigger further landslides, weather officials have warned.
Much of central and southern Japan is mountainous, with many homes nestled into steep slopes.
Last year, a typhoon triggered landslides on Izu Oshima island, south of Tokyo, that left 35 people dead.