TOKYO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Torrential rain pounded eastern Japan and elsewhere on Monday, leaving a woman dead in her submerged car in Fukushima Prefecture, local media reported.
The woman in her 60s was declared dead after being found unresponsive in the submerged car at an underpass in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, at around 7:50 a.m. local time, Kyodo News reported, citing the local fire department.
Meanwhile, two people suffered minor injuries after falling amid the heavy rain in Chiba Prefecture, the report said.
Heavy rain hit many areas of eastern Japan, including Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures, from the early hours of Monday, disrupting train services and forcing some school closures.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued Level 5 emergency landslide warnings for Niijima Village, Oshima Town and Toshima Village in the Izu Island chain south of Tokyo, the highest level of alert on the agency's scale of 1 to 5.
In Niijima, which is located about 150 km south of central Tokyo, the 24-hour rainfall until 9:40 a.m. reached 485 mm, the largest amount since local records began, the JMA said.
The weather agency warned of more rainfall in wide areas facing the Pacific as warm and damp air approaches the rain front stretching along the main island of Honshu.
The JMA also warned that rainbands capable of bringing localized torrential downpours over prolonged periods could develop in the northeastern Tohoku region as a seasonal rain front moves north. ■