TOKYO:- Japan on Thursday ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents from the outskirts of its ancient capital of Kyoto after ‘historic’ rains battered its western region, killing a man, with yet more rain forecast. About 160,000 people were advised to evacuate across the region as weather officials warned that rain levels they described as ‘historic’ could continue until Sunday. “Severe caution is needed,” an official of Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) told a news conference, warning of the potential for landslides and high winds. A 59-year-old construction worker died in the western prefecture of Hyogo after being sucked into a drainage pipe, and two more were injured as they rushed to his rescue, NHK national television said.–Reuters

Evacuation orders went out in some outlying parts of Kyoto, with the Kyodo news agency saying about 16,000 people were affected. Television broadcast images of the swollen waters of the Kamo River in the city centre. The heavy rains were brought by a rush of humid air from the south and the remnants of a typhoon this week.