Kyushu landslide

Rescuers are searching for six people after an overnight landslide buried a small cluster of houses at the foot of a steep slope in southern Japan.

Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency says the landslide occurred around 3:50 a.m. Wednesday in Oita prefecture on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. The agency said it left six people missing and damaged four homes.

Aerial photographs from Japanese media showed a denuded swath on a thickly forested mountainside, and a huge mound of earth and tree trunks that buried houses, blocked the road in front of them and spilled over into fields on the other side. Blue-suited rescue workers could be seen on top of the rubble.

The cause of the landslide wasn’t immediately clear.