Japan hit by severe flooding and landslides

Widespread flooding and landslides in north-east Japan have forced more than 90,000 people to abandon their homes, the BBC reported Thursday.

The city of Joso, north of the capital, Tokyo, was hit by a wall of water after the Kinugawa River burst its banks. Helicopter rescue teams have been plucking people from rooftops.

One person has been reported missing in the region and at least 12 are injured.

The rains come a day after Typhoon Etau brought winds of up to 125km/h (78mph) to central Aichi prefecture.

"This is a scale of downpour that we have not experienced before. Grave danger could be imminent," the chief forecaster at the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), Takuya Deshimaru, told an emergency press conference earlier on Thursday.

The hardest-hit areas have been Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures. Japan's Meteorological Agency had put both regions on its highest level of alert.