Japanese rescue crews on July 24 recovered three more bodies in the western city of Hofu, which was hit by a series of landslides and floods early this week, bringing the death toll to 15.

Local police said two female bodies were found in Hofu city, Yamaguchi prefecture, and the remains of another female were found on a river bank nearby Mine city. Rescue workers are still searching for three missing people, police said.

Meanwhile, meteorologists warned that more heavy rains would hit the region on July 24 and 25.

To mitigate the loss of life, Hofu authorities, on the morning of July 24, evacuated 3,400 local families who are living near the city’s two reservoirs.

In China, close to 600 rescuers are digging through rock and mud in an attempt to find about 50 people left missing in a landslide which occurred in southwest Sichuan province early July 22.

Landslides also claimed four deaths and injured four, and dug out a new lake, measuring 50m in width and 3,000m in length, capable of containing 3 million cu.m of water in the region.

Sichuan province was rocked in May 2008 by a massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake that triggered huge landslides across the region's mountainous terrain. Nearly 87,000 people were left dead or missing.

China’s neighbour, Mongolia, was also stricken by floods, the most serious seen in the country in the past four decades, which killed 23 people and destroyed thousands of houses.

The capital city of Ulan Bator and Gobi-Altai province are the regions hardest hit by the floods, sparked by torrential rains since July 17./.