JAPANESE RESCUERS SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS
Workers dig through mud, rubble after floods kill more than 100
DESPERATE relatives braced for bad news yesterday as rescuers dug through landslides in the wake of severe floods that have killed 100 people and left swathes of central and western Japan under water.
As floods receded, emergency workers were able to reach previously cut-off places where authorities fear they could find more bodies in the wreckage of homes devastated by rivers of mud and debris.
At the end of last week, rivers engorged by more than a metre of rain burst their banks, engulfing entire villages and forcing people to rooftops to await evacuation by helicopter.
Hillsides gave way under the weight of water, with deadly landslides crushing wooden houses and erasing roads.
Yesterday, with the sun finally out and temperatures rising, rescue workers dug through mud in a desperate search for survivors or victims.
In neighbouring Okayama prefecture, rescue workers flew in helicopters over areas that are submerged and otherwise unreachable, looking for signs of life.
“A total of 73,000 police, Fire Department, Self-Defence Forces and Japan Coast Guard personnel, with 700 helicopters, are doing their best as part of the rescue effort,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cancelled a four-country foreign trip as the death toll from flooding and landslides caused by record rains hit 100, local media said yesterday.
Abe had been expected to visit Belgium, France, Saudi Arabia and Egypt from tomorrow. His office declined to comment on the reports.
Abe reportedly told the deputy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party that he had “no choice but to cancel” as the disaster continues to unfold, Kyodo news agency said.