ATAMI: Rescuers in a Japanese holiday town hit by a deadly landslide were forced to suspend their search for survivors several times on Sunday as more rain lashed the devastated area.

Two women were confirmed dead after torrents of mud crashed through part of the hot-spring resort of Atami in central Japan on Saturday morning, following days of heavy downpours. Nineteen people have been rescued and around 20 others are still missing, the town’s disaster-management spokesman Yuta Hara said.

“We are doing our best to rescue survivors while carefully checking the weather and other conditions,” he said.

Hara said around 130 homes and other buildings had been destroyed as the landslide swept through the residential area, leaving behind a quagmire that stretched down to the nearby coast.

Vehicles were buried and buildings tipped from their foundations, with an air-conditioning unit seen dangling from one devastated home towards the slurry below.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2021