Three people killed and three others are missing in flooding in southwest Japan caused by the region’s “heaviest” rain ever.
Rivers overflowed and hillsides collapsed as record amounts of rain dumped on parts of Kyushu island.
The national weather agency logged 402.5mm falling in Kurume on Monday, the highest ever recorded in the city.
Roads and powerlines cut, and thousands ordered to evacuate as further downpours expected.
Satoshi Sugimoto, of the Japanese Meteorological Agency, said he believed the downpours were “the heaviest ever experienced” in the region.
The downpours prompted evacuation notices for hundreds of thousands of people and remote communities remain effectively cut off by flooding and other damage, he said.
An elderly woman died when she trapped in a house engulfed in mud in Soeda, Fukuoka province, local authorities said. Her husband survived. Another victim apparently washed away by a flooded river while riding in a car in Kurume.
Japan is currently in its annual rainy season, which often brings heavy downpours, and sometimes results in flooding and landslides as well as casualties.