Rescue workers have recovered three more bodies after a torrent of mud and debris ripped through a Japanese resort town, taking the death toll to seven.
About 2,000 rescuers were deployed in the ravaged part of Atami, where workers and dogs searched carefully inside homes that were destroyed and filled with mud in Saturday's disaster.
A slight rain continued to fall and the risk of further mudslides occasionally disrupted operations.
"We will do the utmost to save as many lives as possible," Atami mayor Sakae Saito said.
Rescue workers found the bodies of two women and a man under the mud on Tuesday, Atami officials said.
By late Tuesday, more than 20 people were still missing, Shizuoka prefecture and Atami city officials said.
Officials are still sorting out the number because many apartments and houses in Atami are second homes or holiday rentals. In addition to the seven found dead, 25 people have been rescued, including three who were injured, officials said.
The disaster is an added challenge for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga as authorities prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, due to start in less than three weeks.
Japan is still struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, with cases steadily climbing in the capital and experts suggesting a need for another state of emergency.
The landslide occurred after days of heavy rain in Atami, which like many seaside towns in Japan is built into a steep hillside. It tore through the Izusan neighbourhood, known for its hot springs, a shrine and shopping streets.
The town has a registered population of 36,800 and is about 60 miles south west of Tokyo.
Officials on Tuesday started examining the cause of the disaster. Government experts visited a site believed to be the starting point of the mudslide and flew a drone for an aerial survey.
Shizuoka governor Heita Kawakatsu said rain soaked into the mountainside and apparently weakened the ground under a massive pile of soil at a construction site, which then slid down the slope.
The prefecture is investigating planned land development in the area, which was reportedly abandoned after its operator ran into financial problems.
Land and infrastructure minister Kazuyoshi Akaba said he planned to conduct a risk assessment for tens of thousands of land development sites around the country.
The Izusan area is one of 660,000 locations in Japan identified as prone to mudslides by the government, but those designations are not widely publicised and public awareness is low.
Early July, near the end of Japan's rainy season, is often a time of deadly floods and mudslides, and many experts say the rains are worsening due to climate change.
With other parts of the country expecting heavy downpours, authorities are urging people near hillsides in at-risk areas to use caution.
A year ago, flooding and mudslides triggered by heavy rain in Kumamoto and four other prefectures in the Kyushu region of southern Japan killed nearly 80 people.
In July 2018, hillsides in crowded residential areas in Hiroshima collapsed, killing 20, and in 2017, mudslides and flooding in the Kyushu region killed 40.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here