Death toll rises to 27 in landslides in Japan

Torrential rains hit Fukuoka Prefecture, some 900 km west of Tokyo, on Friday and Saturday, leaving 12 people dead and two others missing from mudslides and flooding, police said.

Some areas in the prefecture had more than 600 millimeters of rain since Friday, nearly double its monthly average rainfall for July, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The central government sent a task force, led by Motoo Hayashi, the country's state minister in charge of natural disasters, to Fukuoka Prefecture on Monday. The weekend disaster in Fukuoka came after a series of landslides and floods last week killed 15 people in neighboring Yamaguchi Prefecture, including the six at a senior nursing home, bringing the death toll caused by heavy rain in western Japan to 27, KUNA reported.