A town in western Japan has conducted an evacuation drill amid rising fears of a North Korean ballistic missile strike.

More than 280 residents and schoolchildren from Abu, a small town with a population of just over 3,400 on the north-western coast, rushed to designated school buildings to seek shelter on Sunday after sirens from loudspeakers warned of a possible missile flight and debris.

The drill follows three consecutive weeks of North Korean missile tests.

Last week, a missile splashed into the sea inside Japan's 200-mile exclusive economic zone off the country's western coast.

It was the second such drill since March, when Tokyo instructed local governments to review their contingency plans and conduct evacuation exercises.

A similar, city-organised drill was conducted in the neighbouring Fukuoka region and others are planned over the next few months.