Drone footage of mud slide disaster in Japan

Rescue workers slogged through mud and debris Monday looking for at least 20 people missing since a giant landslide ripped through a Japanese seaside resort town and killed at least three people.

Mud crashed into rows of houses on a mountainside in Atami early Saturday following several days of heavy rains.

Shizuoka Prefecture provided a drone footage showing the area where the mudslide is believed to have started.

Hundreds of troops, firefighters and other rescue workers toiled in thick mud on the city streets, the scene obscured by continuing rains and fog.

Their work was backed by three coast guard ships, and six military drones were being deployed.

Three people have been found dead as of early Monday, Fire and Disaster Management Agency and local officials said.

Twenty-three people stranded by the slide have been rescued, including three who were injured.

Atami officials said 215 people were registered as living in the 130 homes and other buildings damaged by the slide.

Initially, 147 of those people were unreachable, but the number has been lowered to 113 as city officials confirmed some had safely evacuated.

They are hoping to be able to get in touch with more of them Monday.

Separately, about 20 were believed buried underneath the mudslide, the disaster agency said.

Shizuoka Gov. Heita Kawakatsu told a news conference Sunday that land development upstream may have been a factor in the mudslide.

Citing a preliminary examination by drone, Kawakatsu said massive amounts of soil that had been heaped up at the area under development were all washed down.

IMAGE: AP