TOKYO, Oct 8: Forty-four people were dead or missing in a spell of bad weather over the weekend in Japan as three boats capsized on rough seas and mountain climbers got lost in storms, officials said.

On Sunday, waves swept over a private leisure fishing boat carrying 15 people near Kozu island, part of the Izu chain south of Tokyo, an official at the Japan Coast Guard said.

Eight of the boaters were rescued. Two others later died in hospital, while five remained missing, he said.

It was the latest accident caused by a large-scale low pressure front that swept across Japan on Friday.

On Friday, the Panamanian-flagged 98,587-ton Giant Step freighter caught fire and ran aground off Japan’s Pacific coast. Two Indian sailors, 34 and 46, have been confirmed dead and eight others remained missing, another coast guard official said.

A search operation continued in northern Japan for 15 crew members whose fishing boat was stranded off Onagawa in Miyagi prefecture on Friday.

The coast guard on Saturday recovered the body of one sailor, another official said.

The low-pressure front has also caused storms in mountains over the weekend, and at least two people died in central Japan, local police said.

A party of seven climbers called for help on Saturday evening from a mountain on the border between Nagano and Toyama prefectures, a police spokesman said.

Rescuers found one woman dead on the mountain ridge at a height of about 2,700 meters and another woman died as she was being brought down, he said. The remaining five climbers were still in mountain huts, he said.

Another party of four were lost in a mountain of central Gifu prefecture.—AFP