Japan Floods: Hundreds Of Thousands Evacuated

With forecasters predicting yet more rain for Japan, authorities have given orders for a mass evacuation.

In some areas almost 80cm (31in) of rain fell in just 72 hours - devastating a vast swathe of the country's southern Kyushu island.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned of more landslides and flooding as rainfall of 11cm (4in) per hour was recorded in some areas.

Evacuation orders have been issued to around 260,000 people in the north of the island where more rivers have now burst their banks, according to local media reports.

The authorities have described this amount of rain over such a short period of time as unprecedented.

Japan's self-defence force has been mobilised to help with the evacuation - helping people get to emergency shelters set up in places like schools and gyms.

In Oita prefecture, one evacuee described how he had to seek refuge in a school gymnasium.

"What is going on? I've never experienced anything like this in my life," he said.

At least 20 people have so far been reported killed with an elderly woman in her 80s reported as missing.

The Japan Times said police have launched searches for seven missing people in Oita and Kumanoto.

Television pictures show how the region has been devastate by mudslides and floods, with torrents of water destroying homes and buildings and swamping neighbourhoods.

Hiroaki Aoki, an official from Fukuoka prefecture, said there had been more than 181 landslides from his region alone.

Along the Yamakuni river in Oita prefecture water was seen reaching the roof of a riverside drive-in restaurant.

Most of the fatalities reported so far have occurred around the city of Aso on Kyushu island, where 19 people have died in house collapses and landslides.

The Kyodo news agency reported the effected prefectures as Fukuoka, Saga, Kumamoto, and Oita.

In Fukuoka prefecture alone around 190,000 people from 65,000 households were issued with the order to evacuate.

At one point all residents in Yanagawa were instructed to evacuate although the order was later lifted in some areas.

A powerful seasonal rain front hovering over wide areas of Japan is also causing sporadic torrential rain in eastern and central regions.