Rain in Japan :- 2 million residents have been asked to take shelter

Nearly two million people have been urged to evacuate their homes amid heavy rainfall in parts of Japan.

Highest-level rain warnings have been issued in a number of prefectures, including Fukuoka and Hiroshima.

One woman has died and her husband and daughter are missing after a landslide destroyed two homes in Nagasaki prefecture.

More than 150 troops, police and firefighters have been sent to help with rescue operations in the area.

They are carefully searching for the missing residents, while watching out for further mudslides as the heavy rain continues," a local official told the AFP news agency.

The west of the country is worst affected but heavy downpours are expected across the country in coming days.

In total, non-compulsory evacuation warnings are now in place for more than 1.8 million people across seven prefectures, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Yushi Adachi, from Japan's meteorological agency, described the current rainfall as "unprecedented".

"It's highly likely that some kind of disaster has already occurred," he said.

IMAGE SOURCE@NAPSPANS VIA REUTERS

image captionStreets in Fukuoka prefecture were photographed flooding on Saturday

IMAGE SOURCEKYODO VIA REUTERS

image captionSome residents were seen in boats being escorted to safety

Local television footage showed submerged roads. Rivers in Saga and Fukuoka have overflowed with water levels still rising, local media reports said.

An official in Kumamoto, south-western Japan, are looking for a 76-year-old man who disappeared after trying to secure his fishing boat at a surging river.

The flooding comes just weeks after heavy rain caused landslides and prompted rivers to burst their banks, killing dozens.