19 missing, homes swept away in Japan landslide after heavy rain

Houses damaged by a mudslide are seen following heavy rain at Izusan district in Atami, Japan

A huge landslide swept away homes and left 19 people missing at a popular resort town in central Japan on Saturday after days of heavy rain, local officials said. Television footage showed a torrent of mud obliterating some buildings and burying others in Atami, southwest of Tokyo, with people running away as it crashed over a hillside road. ‘I heard a horrible sound and saw a mudslide flowing downwards as rescue workers were urging people to evacuate. So I ran to higher ground,’ a leader of a temple near the disaster told public broadcaster NHK. ‘When I returned, houses and cars that were in front of the temple were gone.’