Three people are missing after a residence in western Japan was buried in a landslide early Friday, police and firefighters said.
The landslide in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, occurred as the weather agency warned of heavy rain mainly in western Japan, calling people to be on high alert for landslides and flooding in low-lying areas.
With a rainy-season front lingering over the Pacific side of western to eastern Japan through Saturday, the atmospheric conditions are likely to be very unstable, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
In Matsuyama, a slope measuring around 50 meters wide and 100 meters high collapsed from a mountain at around 4 a.m. Friday, with soil also reported to have flowed into nearby apartments, firefighters said.
"There were three landslides. An elderly woman believed to be a resident came out of her house, but I don't know if she is safe as there was another landslide after she went back inside," a person who was passing by the area said.
