BBC Online :
Rescuers have been searching desperately for survivors in Japan’s Hiroshima prefecture where a landslide killed at least 42 people.
At least 43 others are missing, officials told the Kyodo news agency.
Police quoted by the agency say that more people could be unaccounted for, buried by mudslides and not yet reported as missing.
About 3,000 rescue personnel have been trying to remove mud and debris hampering the search.
Torrential rains have led to the evacuation of up to 100,000 people.
Experts say the chances of survival for people trapped without food or water in such a disaster decreases significantly after the first 72 hours, which passed early on Saturday.
On Friday afternoon all searches in the area were called off when the shape of nearby hillsides appeared to change, raising fears that more landslips could be on the way.
“Operations in (two districts) were halted as hills there were becoming misshapen,” a Hiroshima police spokesman is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
