Rescuers scramble to find missing after Japan floods

Asakura : Rescuers in Japan were Friday scrambling to find more than 20 people missing after huge floods swept across the country's south this week, killing at least seven and leaving a trail of destruction.

Raging rivers overflowing with water and mud have devastated swathes of Kyushu -- the southernmost of Japan's four main islands -- after heavy rainfall, sweeping away roads and houses and destroying schools.

Thousands of rescuers have been fighting through thick mud and battling the rain to search for missing and stranded people, with more than 1,100 believed to be cut off according to public broadcaster NHK.

The government said Friday that seven had been killed, while 22 remain unaccounted for.

Public broadcaster NHK, however, reported that four additional bodies had been found in addition to the seven. 

NHK footage showed heavy machinery moving rocks and dirt to clean roads. 

A number of fallen trees were shown smashed into houses in the hard-hit Fukuoka prefecture city of Asakura, which saw more than 50 centimetres (almost 20 inches) of rain in a 12-hour period to Wednesday night.

Vehicles could also be seen overturned or buried in mud and reinforced river banks destroyed by raging water. Military trucks and rescue vehicles competed for space on the city's streets.

NHK said local authorities were dispatching helicopters to pluck people out of isolation, showing footage of stranded elderly residents being rescued.

It added that local authorities were rushing to restore access to regions cut off by the landslides and floods.

"My parents are still trapped with 16 other people in the Kurogawa area and I have absolutely no information about the situation there," Asakura resident Kayoko Ishibashi told AFP, referring to a district in the city.

"So I can only wait here in the hope that they will be rescued by helicopter," she added. "It's the same for everyone here."