Six dead and dozens injured as Typhoon Shanshan hits Japan with torrential rain

TOKYO, Aug 31 – At least six people were killed today as Typhoon Shanshan moved eastward through Japan, inundating wide areas with torrential rain and triggering landslide and flood warnings hundreds of kilometers from the storm's center.

Footage from national broadcaster NHK showed houses with their roofs partially torn off while cars drove up to their tires on flooded roads in the southwest of the country. The storm made landfall in Kyushu on Thursday, bringing record amounts of rainfall.

One person is missing and more than 100 have been injured, Japan's fire and disaster management agency said. In Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Kyushu, more than 35,000 households were without power, according to Kyushu Electric.

Shanshan, centered about 480 km southwest of Tokyo, unleashed heavy rains as far north as Hokkaido prefecture at 12:50 p.m. (03:50 GMT/11:50 a.m. Malaysian time), despite being downgraded to a tropical storm yesterday, with wind gusts reaching up to 25 m/s (90 km/h).

Since the storm hit, authorities across the country have issued flood and landslide warnings, suspended air and rail traffic, and closed factories.

The storm is expected to weaken to a tropical depression over the weekend, but is expected to continue bringing heavy rains, NHK reported. — Reuters