At least four people died and five were reported missing after a new spell of torrential rain unleashed floods and landslides in Japan overnight, police said on Saturday.
The weekend tragedy came after a series of landslides and floods earlier this week killed 15 people. Torrential rain hit Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Friday, causing mudslides and floods and killing four people.
A 73-year-old man was found dead after a mudslide struck his home late Friday in Fukuoka prefecture, located in Kyushu, a police official said.
"I heard a roar like a thunderbolt... It was overwhelming and scared me a lot," a neighbour told a private television network as he recalled the moment the landslide hit the area.
A 54-year-old woman was found dead after her car was swept into an irrigation channel, while a 60-year-old man died after falling in a street ditch, the Fukuoka police said.
A 67-year-old man also died in the southern prefecture of Nagasaki, local police said.
"His wife found him under mud and a fallen concrete fence" outside of their home in Iki City in the prefecture yesterday, a police official said.