TOKYO (AFP) - A NEW spell of torrential rain has unleashed floods and landslides in southern Japan overnight, killing at least four people, police said on Saturday.

The weekend tragedy came after a series of landslides and floods earlier this week killed 15 people in western Japan.

Torrential rain hit Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Friday, causing mudslides and flooding rivers and streets.

A 73-year-old man was found dead after a mudslide struck his home late Friday in Fukuoka prefecture, located in Kyushu, a police official said.

A 54-year-old woman was found dead after her car was swept into an irrigation channel, while a 60-year-old man died after falling in a street ditch, the Fukuoka police said.

A 67-year-old man also died in the southern prefecture of Nagasaki, local police said.

Reports said a seven-year-old boy was killed in Oita, also in Kyushu, after he was carried away by floods.

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