Powerful Typhoon Shanshan slams into southern Japan

OITA, Japan: One of Japan´s strongest typhoons in decades dumped torrential rain across southern regions on Thursday, with one person missing and at least 80 injured as authorities warned of life-threatening flooding and landslides.

Typhoon Shanshan packed gusts of up to 252-kms per hour as it smashed into Japan´s main southern island of Kyushu early Thursday, making it the most powerful storm this year and one of the strongest at landfall since 1960.

The storm then weakened, with maximum gusts of 162 kph at 5:00 pm (0800 GMT), the weather office said, but it was still dumping heavy rain across Kyushu and beyond as it moved slowly towards the main island of Honshu.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warned that “the risk of a disaster due to heavy rain can rapidly escalate in western Japan as Friday approaches”.

Even before Shanshan hit, precipitation pummelled large parts with three members of the same family killed in a landslide late Tuesday in Aichi prefecture around 1,000-kms from Kyushu.

Authorities issued their highest alert in places, with more than five million people advised to evacuate, although it was unclear how many did.