Typhoon tears across Japan

Typhoon Chaba tore across southwestern Japan yesterday, killing at least five people and knocking out electricity for thousands as it swirled its way north, dumping heavy rain and whipping up huge seas.

Four were missing, more than 350,000 households lost power at one point, and thousands of people were evacuated because of fears of flooding and landslides in areas hit by another typhoon two weeks ago.

Chaba, one of the strongest storms to hit Japan this year, at one point generated winds of up to 210 kilometres per hour, near the highest on record for the area, public broadcaster NHK said.

By evening it had weakened, but still had gusts of up to 126 kilometres an hour.

Kyushu, one of four of Japan's main islands, has so far suffered the worst damage. The island is home to a tenth of the country's population. Another 10,000 later lost power on neighbouring Shikoku island.

More than 16,000 people had left their homes to wait out the storm in shelters as authorities warned of flooding and landslides, particularly in parts of Shikoku, which was hit hard by typhoon Megi two weeks ago. The Meteorological Agency issued heavy rain and flood warnings for a wide area of southwestern Japan. Some 200 millimetres to 250 millimetres of rain was predicted to fall on some areas by this evening, NHK said.

An empty Vietnamese-flagged cargo ship ran aground near Shikoku and Japanese media said four crew members were missing, but the Japan Coast Guard could not immediately confirm this.

Television pictures showed people wading through knee-deep water in the streets of Kagoshima city on the southern tip of Kyushu, while huge waves battered seaside houses.