Thousands of people in Japan's southern island of Kyushu have been asked to evacuate as torrential rains triggered landslides and floods.
According to officials, 15 people are feared dead and nine reported missing.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged people to be on "maximum alert" as "heavy rainfall is likely to continue until Sunday".
As many as 10,000 soldiers have been deployed to assist in rescue operations.


Cloudflare outage cuts access to X, ChatGPT and other web platforms
Kremlin says Russia will not participate in Ukraine talks in Turkey this week
After UN vote, Netanyahu calls for Hamas' expulsion from the region
UN Security Council adopts US resolution on Trump's Gaza peace plan
Iraqi PM-led coalition tops election with 46 seats, commission says
