Police officers conduct a search in Shinjo, Yamagata Prefecture, on Saturday (July 27) morning. – The Japan News
TOKYO: Three people remain missing in Yamagata and Akita prefectures, where heavy, record-breaking rain has fallen.
Police and fire departments continued their search efforts at various locations on Saturday (July 27).
In Shinjo, Yamagata Prefecture, one police officer was declared dead while another was missing after a police car was swept away.
More than 100 firefighters and members of the prefectural police mobile unit resumed the search at around 6:30am on Saturday.
The search was conducted in rice fields near the Nitta River, a tributary of the Mogami River. Officers used sticks to part the rice stalks and search for clues, while a prefectural police helicopter and a drone conducted aerial searches.
A 75-year-old man watching nearby said, “I pray that he hasn’t been swept away by the river. I hope he is found soon.”
In Akita Prefecture, a prefectural firefighting helicopter searched from the air for a man in his 60s on Saturday morning after he went missing due to a landslide at a road construction site in Yuzawa.
Additionally, the police are searching for a 42-year-old man from Daisen in the prefecture who has been missing since Wednesday night.
According to the Sendai Regional Headquarters of the Japan Meteorological Agency, heavy rain is expected in the area until Saturday night, and rain is also forecasted for Sunday (July 28). – The Japan News/ANN
