Japan landslide: Death toll rises to 39 in Hiroshima
Heavy rain has hampered rescue operations in Japan's Hiroshima prefecture where a landslide killed at least 39 people.
The number of people missing has risen to 51 after police cross-checked information with fire crews, officials quoted by Kyodo news agency say.
About 3,000 rescue personnel are in the area but heavy rain has suspended search operations.
Torrential rains have led to the evacuation of up to 100,000 people.
On Friday afternoon all searches in the area were called off when the shape of nearby hillsides appeared to change, raising fears that more landslips could be on the way.
"Operations in (two districts) were halted as hills there were becoming misshapen," a Hiroshima police spokesman is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
The landslides happened after the equivalent of a month's rain fell in the 24 hours up to Wednesday morning, Japan's weather agency said.
Dozens of homes in a residential area close to a mountain on the outskirts of Hiroshima were buried.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says with the leap in the death toll, the eventual number of victims could be close to 100.