One dead, at least 11 missing after floods, landslides hit Japan

Floods and landslides killed one person and left at least 11 missing in central Japan, with recovery teams at work on Sept 22 in a remote peninsula already devastated by a major earthquake in 2024.

"Unprecedented" heavy rain that lashed the area from Sept 21 began to subside, leaving muddy scenes of destruction as the national weather agency urged people to stay vigilant for loose ground and other dangers.

In the city of Wajima, splintered branches and a huge uprooted tree piled up at a bridge over a river whose raging brown waters almost reached ground level.

People were seen wading into the mud to try to dig out half-buried cars, while elsewhere, flood waters inundated emergency housing built for those who had lost their homes in the New Year's Day earthquake that killed at least 318 people.

Ms Akemi Yamashita, a 54-year-old resident, told AFP that she was driving on Sept 21 when "within only 30 minutes or so, water gushed onto the street and quickly rose to half the height of my car".

"I was talking to other residents of Wajima yesterday, and they said, 'It is so heartbreaking to live in this city'. I got teary when I heard that," she said, describing the earthquake and floods as "like something from a movie".