ASAHIKAWA, Japan — At least 36 people were killed and seven missing in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima on Wednesday after heavy rain caused flash floods and landslides that buried victims alive as they slept in their homes, the police said. Hundreds of soldiers have been sent to the scene to dig for survivors.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had been on summer vacation, cut short a game of golf to rush back to Tokyo to lead the response to the disaster, government officials said. While deadly landslides are common in this densely populated, mountainous nation, death tolls rarely reach this high.

According to the police, the dead included two brothers, ages 2 and 11, who were buried when a wall of mud engulfed their home in a neighborhood that sits at the foot of a steep mountainside. A firefighter also died during rescue operations, the police said.