01 September,2016 08:17 AM IST | | Agencies
At least 11 people, including nine elderly people at a nursing home, were found dead yesterday in Japan as heavy overnight rain from Typhoon Lionrock left towns flooded across the country’s north
Tokyo: At least 11 people, including nine elderly people at a nursing home, were found dead yesterday in Japan as heavy overnight rain from Typhoon Lionrock left towns flooded across the country's north.
Nine of the victims were elderly people from this nursing home. Pics/AFP
Police discovered the bodies in the town of Iwaizumi while checking another facility in the flooded neighbourhood, said Takehiro Hayashijiri, an official at the Iwate prefecture disaster management division. The identity of the victims and other details, including the whereabouts of their caretakers, were not known, Hayashijiri said. Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the home was for people with dementia. NHK also reported that authorities have found two more bodies in another town in Iwate prefecture.
Its footage showed the nursing home partially buried in mud, surrounded by debris apparently washed down from the mountains. A car by the home was turned upside down. Typhoon Lionrock made landfall Tuesday near the city of Ofunato, 500 kilometers northeast of Tokyo on the Pacific coast and crossed the main island of Honshu before heading out to the Sea of Japan. It was the first time a typhoon has made landfall in the northern region since 1951, when the Japan Meteorological Agency started keeping records.
