At least two people have been killed and 18 others are missing in huge floods that are surging through southern Japan, with authorities warning hundreds of thousands of people to flee.

Unprecedented torrential rain has caused rivers to burst their banks, sweeping away roads and houses, and destroying schools.

Thousands of soldiers and other rescuer workers were scrambling Thursday to reach people cut off by torrents of swirling water or threatened by landslides, as forecasters warned of worse to come.

“We are in an extremely serious situation,” Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said, warning of the danger of collapsing hillsides and adding “many people are still missing”.

More than 50 centimetres (20 inches) of rain deluged parts of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, over 12 hours on Wednesday, the meteorological agency said.

Downpours will likely continue through Friday, the agency said as the region grapples with the aftermath of a typhoon that raked the country this week.

Authorities lifted “special” heavy rain warnings for the hardest hit prefectures of Fukuoka and Oita, although lesser warnings remained in place.

Japan is deploying 7,500 police, rescue personnel and troops in affected areas of Kyushu, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

“There is a lot of information about people who are unaccounted for,” he told a press conference, declining to confirm the number of people missing.

Those included a child reportedly carried off by a fast-flowing river and a couple who had not been seen since their house was swept away.

Source: AFP