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TOKYO: Nine people died and nine are missing in Japan as torrential rain triggered flash floods and landslides ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Etau, police and media reports said on Monday.
The typhoon, packing winds of up to 108 kilometres (67 miles) per hour, was forecast to hit the Tokyo area on Tuesday, Japan's weather agency said.
Heavy downpours have drenched the main Honshu island since the weekend, leading to incidents that left at least 18 people dead or missing, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Police said among the dead were two men and one woman confirmed killed in western Hyogo prefecture, where they drowned in floods.
"One man was found in a submerged car and one woman was in a gutter," said a police spokesman. "We have not confirmed how another male body was found."
In adjacent Okayama prefecture, a 68-year-old woman died in a landslide.
Television footage showed rescue workers removing debris from houses destroyed by flash floods in Sayocho, Hyogo, where a raging river broke its banks.
Typhoon Etau, which means "storm cloud" in Palauan, was moving towards Honshu at a speed of 15 kilometres per hour, Japan's weather agency said.
At 9:00 am (0000 GMT) it was located 370 kilometres south of the southwestern island of Shikoku, moving northwest, the agency said, adding that it would approach eastern Japan, including Tokyo, early Tuesday.
Typhoon Etau is expected to bring up to 25 centimetres (10 inches) of rain by Tuesday morning, the weather agency said.
Several dozen typhoons hit Japan every year in the summer and early autumn, frequently disrupting air and rail transport.
China rushed nearly one million people out of harm's way as Typhoon Morakot slammed into its coast Sunday after it triggered Taiwan's worst flooding in 50 years, leaving at least 12 people dead.
- AFP/yt
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