2 dead, 3 missing as Typhoon Talim hits Japan

TOKYO: A powerful typhoon ripped through the Japanese archipelago yesterday, leaving two people dead and three missing, news reports said.

Typhoon Talim made landfall on Sunday in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands, packing winds of up to 162kph, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The storm, moving northeast along the country, reached the nation’s northern island of Hokkaido by yesterday morning, dumping torrential rain and paralysing domestic transportation.

A 86-year-old woman was found dead on Sunday after her house was hit by a landslide in Kagawa, western Japan, while a 60-year-old driver was found dead in his car that sank under a swollen river in Kochi, also in western Japan, police officers said.

Public broadcaster NHK said three people were missing in western Japan, and 38 people had been injured in storm-related accidents.

At least 116 domestic flights were cancelled yesterday because of strong winds, and some bullet train services were suspended in northern Japan due to the typhoon, NHK said.

Authorities have issued warnings of rainstorms, high seas, possible landslides and flooding across the nation, as the storm maintained its strength.

The typhoon had battered the southern Okinawan island chain before it hit Kyushu, causing the most rain seen over a 24-hour period in 50 years in the city of Miyako.

Big storms regularly strike Japan, with 22 people killed when Typhoon Lionrock pounded the country September last year. AFP