Three killed as heavy rains swamp central Japan

People push a car stuck on a flooded street in Nagoya, central Japan on Monday

NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) -- At least three people were killed by flooding and landslides in the industrial city of Nagoya and surrounding areas in central Japan on Tuesday as typhoon Saomai triggered the region's heaviest rains in at least a century.

Local authorities urged 200,000 households to evacuate to public facilities as torrential rains set off landslides and rivers burst their banks, flooding thousands of homes.

Thousands of passengers were forced to spend Monday night on high-speed bullet trains stalled by the rains, which dumped as much as 60 cm (18 inches) of precipitation on the area.

The Meteorological Agency said rainfall in the region, home to Japan's third-largest metropolitan area, was the highest on record for a 24-hour period. The local observatory began keeping records in 1891.

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Police said at least three people were killed and two persons were missing, including a 76-year-old man who was killed while his 73-year-old wife went missing after their home was flattened by a landslide in Komaki city near Nagoya.

In Nagoya, a 53-year-old firefighter died after being washed into an irrigation channel, a police spokesman said.

Television cameras showed vast residential areas partly submerged in muddy water after the Shonai River broke through its banks near Nagoya.

Residents carrying backpacks and plastic bags with a smattering of belongings waded through waist-deep water as they fled their homes, while some held onto ropes to avoid being swept away.

As of 6 a.m. on Tuesday (2100 GMT on Monday), Saomai, packing winds of up to 162 kph (100 mph), was located 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Japan's southern island of Okinawa.

The Shin River, running parallel to the Shonai, also broke through a 100-metre stretch of its banks.

Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers rescued about 30 people stranded on the rooftops of flooded homes.

The Meteorological Agency warned the torrential rains were expected to hit wider areas across the country on Tuesday.

The rains halted "Shinkansen" bullet trains and local rail service in central Japan, with some 50,000 passengers spending the night on the trains, railway officials said.

It also severed the main ground transportation link between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two leading metropolitan areas.

Japan's three main airlines, Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Air System, cancelled scores of domestic flights on Tuesday as a result of the weather.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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