TOKYO, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The death toll following torrential rainfall in southwestern Japan last week rose to 21 on Monday, with scores of people still unaccounted for in the hardest-hit regions, local officials said.

More than 2,000 Self-Defense Forces personnel alongside local search and rescue members continued with emergency rescue work on Monday in Fukuoka and Oita prefectures, according to local media.

Around 180 people are still cut off by heavy flooding and landslides in both prefectures, as 1,700 people remain camped out in emergency evacuation shelters, local officials said.

Municipal officials in Fukuoka Prefecture said Monday that more than 20 people in the prefecture are still missing, with concerns mounting as the weather agency here has warned that powerful thunderstorms may again batter the already rain-ravaged region's in Japan's southwest on Monday evening.

On Saturday, the police discovered five bodies in the Ariake Sea, which is not in the immediate vicinity of the disaster-hit areas.

They believe the bodies may have been washed downstream along the Chikugo River, which flows through Kumamoto, Oita, Fukuoka and Saga prefectures, and into the sea.

Local police said on Monday morning they had found another body in a river in Fukuoka Prefecture's Asakura, one of the hardest-hit areas.

Landslides at 41 locations, and flooding and overflowing of rivers at 38 locations spanning 5 prefectures affected by the disaster have been reported, the land and transport ministry said as of Monday morning.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in a press briefing on the matter Monday that the government will, in cooperation with local officials, analyze the extent of the deluge.

Following this, a quick decision will be made as to whether the government will designate the calamity a "severe disaster" in which case government subsidies for reconstruction and restoration will be made available, Japan's top government spokesperson said.