A dead at landslaw while Japan's heaviest rain of all time

A person was killed on Monday and hundreds of thousands were asked to clear their houses in southwestern Japan, since meteorologists warned of the "heaviest rain of all time" in the region.

deltflut-like rain after a week of constant rain caused rivers to step over the shores and collapsed soaked soil in fatal landslides, including one in which a 77-year-old woman died.

The woman's house was devastated in the Saga region overnight, the local fire brigade of the AFP news agency said. Her husband was saved and taken to the hospital.

official said that the death of a second woman was feared after seeing her last as she clung to a car in the rising flood in the neighboring region of Oita.

At least nine other people were missing in landslides in the Fukuoka and Oita regions, where an evacuation warning of the top level was for over 420,000 people: "Your life is in danger, you have to take measures immediately."

Almost two million other people in Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Saga, Yamaguchi and Oita were under a lower warning that they asked for evacuation when they were in danger areas.

In Japan there are five stages of evacuation commands, but people cannot be forced to leave their houses.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that the heavy rain in Fukuoka and Oita could lead to floods and landslides.

"This is the strongest rain that the region has ever experienced," Satoshi Sugimoto from the JMA forecast department told reporters.

"The Situation is in such a way that life is in danger and security must be guaranteed," he added.

recordings of the National broadcaster NHK showed a crack in the slope over a house in the city of Karatsu, which had been crashed into a river, with many of its traditional roof tiles being shattered.

pictures of elsewhere showed how tearing rivers flooded bridges that normally lie far above the waterline and how floods turned local roads into streams.

The Prime Minister's office announced that a task force had been set up to coordinate the reaction to the rains.

"We have received reports that several rivers are flooded ... and that there were to land on different parts of the country," the Supreme Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters.

"The government is doing its best to get a complete picture of the damage and take measures in the context of a policy in which people are the first thing," he added.

He warned that, for Tuesday, delay -like rains would be predicted in large parts of the country.

"If you feel that your life is in danger, even if it is only slightly, do not hesitate to act," he said.

In the city of Asakura in Fukuoka, officials said that the rain had probably reached its peak, but there is still afraid of flooding.

"The water level in the rivers rises, so we are vigilant over a possible overrun," the local official Takaaki Harano told AFP.

Japan is currently in his annual rainy season, which often brings heavy rainfall and sometimes leads to floods and landslides as well as deaths.

scientists say that climate change increases the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere because a warmer atmosphere contains more water.

The weather authority announced that it had rained in the region for over a week.

"The area has been very wet for over a week due to the intermittent rain," Yoshiyuki Toyoguchi, for rivers, told the state ministry.

"Even with a little rain, the level of the rivers tends to rose quickly, which increases the risk of flooding."

landslide in Japan are a special risk in heavy rains, since houses are often built in the mountain country at the foot of hills.

In 2021, Regen triggered a devastating landslide in the central holiday resort of Atami, in which 27 people died.

and in 2018 during the rainy season in the west of Japan's more than 200 people died through floods and landslides.