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Tokyo, EFE

Dozens of people lost their lives due to floods and landslides caused by torrential rains that hit Japan, where the rescue of the wounded and the search for a Fifty missing people continue today.

At least 50 people, from children to the elderly, died in central and western Japan because of the rains, which lasted three days and led the authorities to temporarily order the evacuation nearly 5 million people.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), which forecasts record rainfall until Sunday, asked the population to be extremely cautious about landslide and landslide accidents. even if the rain stops, because intense rainfall has softened the land.

The NHK public television network – with a wide deployment throughout the country, including helicopters – It broadcasts live images of flooded localities, houses partially buried in mountain slopes and bridges and roads destroyed .

Most of the dead, particularly in Hiroshima and Ehime, were accidentally washed away by the rivers. water or were surprised in their homes by landslides and the rise in water level.

Gifu prefecture (center of the country) is the only one that remains in a state of alert after the decrees of Fukuoka have been progressively lifted, Nagasaki, Saga, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Okayama, Tottori and Hyogo. In addition, 26 of the country's 47 provinces remain alert (but to a lesser extent) due to the risk of an accident.

In Okayama, one of the most affected, about eighty people were temporarily isolated after flooding a retirement home. while more than a dozen citizens have taken refuge on the roof of their home to escape the rising waters.

In addition, a hundred people were trapped Friday night in a residential complex in Hiroshima by flooding According to the local Kyodo News Agency, […]

Among those who were isolated by the storm, some also asked for help to get to the surroundings. Without food Security forces have received more than a hundred ransom demands, said the executive spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, during a press conference during which he explained that the government had established a crisis cabinet. effective, between the soldiers of the Self-Defense Forces (Army), the police and firefighters, participate in the work of search and recovery of wounded, about fifty missing and the bodies of the deceased.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described the situation as "very serious" and called on local authorities to prioritize "saving lives" and taking steps to prevent further damage.

Torrential rains also affected the transportation system. Shinkansen in almost all the territory, as well as commercial and commercial activities.

The automaker Mitsubishi Motors has suspended production and Daihatsu Motor, Toyota Motor's mini-vehicle manufacturing unit, has done the same with its factories in Osaka and Kyoto for the same reason. Japan has not experienced such a disaster since August 2014, when 77 people were killed in Hiroshima by torrential rains.