TOKYO (AFP) – Surging flood water brought by a powerful typhoon left nine people dead in an elderly care home in Japan, officials said Wednesday.
The bodies were discovered in a riverside care complex half buried in mud and rubble after Typhoon Lionrock ripped through the region, dumping torrential rain over a wide area.
Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed a helicopter hovering over the building in Iwaizumi, as rescuers tried to pluck other stranded residents to safety.
A district disaster official said that the nine elderly people died as a result of mud that swamped the facility. The death toll from the powerful storm rose to 10 after an elderly woman was found dead in her flooded home nearby, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.