28 are killed as ‘waterfall’ rains hit Japan

At least 28 people died in south-west Japan after record rainfall caused massive floods and landslides.

Thousands of homes and hundreds of roads were damaged and more than 250,000 people were forced to flee.

Most were able to return home today day, but forecasters warned the danger had not fully passed.

Police were searching for four missing people in the Kumamoto, Oita and Fukuoka prefectures and the military were airlifting food to stranded

districts.

Yoko Yoshika, the wife of an award-winning potter from Yamaguchi prefecture, said: “It was horrible. The rain was like a waterfall.”

Among those killed in Yame city were Katsutoshi Matsumoto, a 70-year-old who died when caught in a landslide while he was out looking at his rice paddies and Shinobu Fueta, 83, whose home was buried in mud.

The rain extended as far north as Kyoto, where it fell at more than 3.5 inches an hour.