Landslides hit Japan’s Hiroshima, killing at least 27

Thursday, 21 August 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Japan (Reuters): At least 27 people, including several children, were killed in Japan on Wednesday, when landslides triggered by torrential rain slammed into the outskirts of the western city of Hiroshima, and the toll was likely to rise, police said. Ten people were missing after a month’s worth of rain fell overnight, loosening slopes already saturated by heavy rain over the past few weeks. “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.”

Helicopters clattered overhead, lifting out survivors, as rescue workers searched through mud and piles of stones in residential areas about 5 km (3 miles) from the city center. Among those dug out of the debris were two brothers, aged eleven and two, whose house was struck as they slept. A child’s red school bag, covered in mud, lay in the debris. Houses had been pushed 100 meters (yards) by the landslide in the worst-hit area, where thick, knee-high mud hampered rescue efforts. “The rain was just pouring down and the street in front of my house turned into a river,” a man in his 70s told national television NHK. The soil in the area was of a kind that absorbed water until it suddenly loosened and slid, increasing the danger, disaster management experts told NHK. Cities in land-scarce Japan often expand into mountainous areas, leaving such development vulnerable to landslides.