Officials say a total of 39 people were killed after a series of landslide buried residential areas in the city of Hiroshima, Japan last Wednesday.

Police officers also found out that the total number of missing people raised to 51 after cross-examining the information with fire crews, Kyodo News agency reported.

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According to some reports, casualties may increase as rescue efforts and cleanup continues. The Hiroshima Prefectural government reinforced the deployment of Self-Defense forces to 600 personnel to make all-out efforts to rescue those affected families.

However, the search operations were suspended on Friday due to heavy rain. Around 2,500 rescue workers confirmed to continued their search for victims while staying alert for another possible disaster in the devastated area, reports said.

Some reports had indicated that dozens of houses were crushed as a wall of mud, rock and debris came down the mountainside and swept the residential areas.

Among those landslide victims is a 53-year old firefighter who died while rescuing a toddler. Some sources said that the man was engulfed by mud when second landslide struck.

Based on some sources, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued sediment disaster alerts for Hiroshima at exactly 1:15 a.m last Wednesday. But the city issued its first evacuation advisory an hour after they received the landslide report.

Officials told the reporters that the city’s response was delayed because the land immediately collapsed at multiple locations.

The city’s crisis management department head Kenzo Kanayama admitted that the municipal government failed to issue a quick evacuation advisory and disregarded the unaccustomed heavy rainfalls and a series of sediment disasters in the area, some reports said.

The landslides occurred after an equivalent of a month's rain fell overnight, Japan's weather agency added.

Meanwhile, opposition politicians slammed Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for failing to properly handle the disaster, some reports said.

TagsHiroshima landslide, Death Toll, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe