Japan floods: Rescue work continues amid deadly floods

Rescue work is continuing across northeast Japan, where at least three people have died in severe flooding and hundreds of people are stranded.

The deaths were in the badly hit prefectures of Tochigi and Miyagi, both north of the capital, Tokyo.

Twenty-six people are still missing, 25 of them in or around Joso city in Ibaraki, where the Kinugawa River burst its banks on Thursday.

Officials have warned of further heavy rain and the risk of mudslides.

The torrential rain comes in the wake of Typhoon Etau, which ploughed through Japan earlier this week.

In other major developments on Friday:

• More than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in Tochigi and Ibaraki.
• The Shibui River in the mostly rural city of Osaki in Miyagi prefecture, around 350 km (220 miles) north of Tokyo, burst its banks, inundating rice fields and houses.
• An evacuation warning was issued for 410,000 people in Sendai, capital of Miyagi, after the Nanakitagawa River flooded in Izumi ward, swamping homes.

Rooftop rescues

Officials have confirmed that a 63-year-old woman was killed when her house was hit by a landslide in Kanuma City in Tochigi.

A second woman, 48, was killed after her car was swept away in Kurihara city in Miyagi. And in hot spring resort of Nikko in Tochigi, a man died after falling into a drain he was trying to clear.

At least 27 people have been injured, eight seriously.

In Joso, which was deluged by the burst river on Thursday, nearly 6,000 emergency service workers are trying to reach stranded people. Many rescuers had worked through the night.

-BBC NEWs