23 Oct 2017

Two dead as typhoon passes near Tokyo

2:19 pm on 23 October 2017

Two people were killed in central Japan as Typhoon Lan made landfall last night.

Scaffolds for construction lie down on the street in Higashi Ward, Fukuoka City in Japan.

Scaffolds for construction lie down on the street in Higashi Ward, Fukuoka City in Japan. Photo: AFP / Masaki Akizuki / The Yomiuri Shimbun

One man died when he was hit by falling scaffolding, and a fisherman was killed as he tended his boat.

At least 11 people have been injured.

The weakening typhoon Lan made landfall in Japan on Monday, setting off landslides and flooding but leaving the capital, Tokyo, largely unscathed.

It had weakened to a category 2 storm when it made landfall early on Monday, sideswiping Tokyo, after it had powered north for days as an intense category 4 storm, according to the Tropical Storm Risk monitoring site. Lan is the Marshall islands word for "storm".

At least two people were killed, one a man in his 60s who was passing a building site when scaffolding collapsed on top of him and the other a fisherman tending to his boat, Kyodo news agency said. Nearly 90 others suffered injuries, most of them minor, media reported.

Another man was missing after a landslide engulfed his home, NHK public television said, although his wife was dug out by rescuers.

Rivers burst their banks in several parts of Japan and fishing boats were tossed up on land. A container ship was stranded after being swept onto a harbour wall but all 19 crew members escaped injury.

The centre of the storm was northeast of Tokyo on Monday morning and it was moving northeast at 65 kmh, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It was expected to move out into the Pacific later on Monday and become a tropical depression on Tuesday.

Around 350 flights were cancelled and train services disrupted over a wide area, although most commuter trains were running smoothly in Tokyo.

- Reuters

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