3 missing people in western Japan landslide confirmed dead

TOKYO -- Three people have been confirmed dead after they were trapped in a landslide in the early hours of Friday in western Japanese prefecture of Ehime, according to local authorities.

Firefighters and police searched the disaster-hit area in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, and found two men and one woman on Saturday afternoon. They were later confirmed to be members of a family who had been reported missing since the landslide.

The victims were a man in his 90s, a woman in her 80s and their son in his 40s, who were living in a wooden house that collapsed due to the landslide.

At around 4 a.m. local time on Friday, a slope measuring around 50 meters wide and 100 meters high collapsed from a mountain, with mud flowing into nearby homes and apartments. Local authorities had been searching for the three missing people after the disaster.

There were no further reports of anybody missing and the search was called off at the landslide site.

The landslide occurred as the country's weather agency warned of heavy rain mainly in western Japan, urging people to be on high alert for landslides and flooding in low-lying areas.