Death toll rises to 3 due to heavy rains in Japan

Tokyo: Another body has been found, which is said to be that of a missing police officer, after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides in northeastern Japan, according to local media. According to local media, the death toll in this incident has risen to three.

Kyodo News quoted local officials as saying that the body found in Shinjo, Yamagata Prefecture on Sunday is possibly one of two police officers in their 20s who went missing after being swept away in a police vehicle last Thursday.

According to Xinhua news agency, the second police officer had already been found and confirmed dead on Friday. On Friday, an 86-year-old man was found dead, believed to have been swept away by a flooded river in neighboring Akita Prefecture. Three other people are missing in the disaster that hit Yamagata and Akita, the report said, and torrential rain is expected to continue in the region.

An 86-year-old woman in Sakata, Yamagata, went missing while heading to an evacuation site with her family, while the whereabouts of two men in Akita Prefecture remain unknown, it said. (IANS)