Two dead in Japan after heavy rain

Tokyo: At least two people died with multiple unaccounted for after heavy rain lashed parts of northeastern Japanese prefectures of Yamagata and Akita, triggering river flooding and landslides, local authorities said Friday.

An 86-year-old man is believed to have been carried away by the flooded Omono River in Akita Prefecture and was found dead Friday morning, while another man was reported missing at a construction site in Yuzawa in the same prefecture, police said.

Two police officers in their 20s in the neighbouring Yamagata Prefecture were unaccounted for after being swept away in a police car, with one of them found and confirmed dead on Friday afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported.

Yamagata prefectural police said it received an emergency call at around 11:45 p.m. local time on Thursday from one of the missing officers in the city of Shinjo, who had gone out to respond to a request for help, saying that the car they were in was being carried away by the water. The vehicle was later found half submerged.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said some 389 millimeters of rain had fallen in Yamagata's Shinjo in the 24 hours up to 6:30 a.m. local time on Friday, noting extremely unstable atmospheric conditions in the Tohoku region triggered the record-breaking downpours.

The JMA issued a second emergency warning of heavy rain for parts of Yamagata late Thursday, which was downgraded to a warning early on Friday. But the agency is calling on people to remain alert to possible river flooding and landslides.