More than 1m people ordered to evacuate

Japan ordered more than one million people on the southernmost island of Kyushu to take shelter in evacuation centres and other safe areas yesterday as heavy rains triggered small landslides and threatened to cause widespread flooding.

Some parts of southern Kyushu have received over 1,000 mm (39.4 inches) of rain since Friday, about as much as usually falls in the whole month of July, broadcaster NHK said.

Forecasters expect as much as 300 mm more rainfall in some areas by yesterday evening.

Evacuation orders were issued for 1.1 million residents of Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures at the southern tip of Kyushu, NHK said. Some 930,000 more were advised to leave.

Only some 3,500 people had evacuated as of 4:00 pm, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

"I live alone next to a river, and it's scary to think of water rising," one woman in an evacuation centre told NHK. Another person said the volume of rainfall was  "terrible".

Television footage showed rivers filled with fast-moving brown water, but none had overflowed their banks as of yesterday evening, although one low dike had broken and efforts were being made to repair it with sandbags.