Three people went missing after a residence in the western Japanese prefecture of Ehime was buried in a landslide early Friday, local media reported.

In Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, a slope measuring around 50 meters wide and 100 meters high collapsed from a mountain at around 4 a.m., with mud reported to have entered nearby houses and an apartment building, Kyodo News said, citing police and firefighters.

Local authorities are searching for the three people after the landslide, the report said.

The city has issued a level-five evacuation alert, the highest, in the disaster-hit Shimizu district, which requires people to immediately act to protect their lives by moving to a sturdy building, the upper floor of a house or another safe location.

As of 8 a.m. on Friday, Matsuyama had recorded 213 millimeters of rainfall since Wednesday, an amount equivalent to the monthly average rainfall for July.

The landslide occurred as the country's weather agency warned of heavy rain mainly in western Japan, urging people to be on high alert for landslides and flooding in low-lying areas.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said that with a rainy-season front lingering over the Pacific side of western to eastern Japan through Saturday, the atmospheric conditions are likely to be very unstable.