Powerful typhoon kills nine in Japan elderly home

Powerful typhoon kills nine in Japan elderly home

PanARMENIAN.Net - Surging flood water brought by a powerful typhoon left nine people dead in an elderly care home in Japan, officials said on Wednesday, August 31, according to AFP.

The bodies were discovered in a riverside care complex half buried in mud and rubble after Typhoon Lionrock ripped through the region, dumping torrential rain over a wide area.

Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed a helicopter hovering over the building in Iwaizumi, as rescuers tried to pluck other stranded residents to safety.

A district disaster official told AFP that the nine elderly people died as a result of mud that swamped the facility.

"We are trying to confirm the identities of these bodies," Shuko Sakamoto, a spokeswoman for police in northern Iwate prefecture, told AFP.

The death toll from the powerful storm rose to 10 after an elderly woman was found dead in her flooded home nearby, top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

NHK also reported another body had been discovered not far from the nursing home, but there has been no official confirmation, AFP says.

Lionrock slammed into northern Japan on Tuesday evening, dumping heavy rain that caused flooding and triggered power outages.

Japan's Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) has sent rescuers to Iwaizumi, spokesman Takenori Ueushiro told AFP.

The typhoon, which was packing winds over 160 kilometres an hour when it made landfall, also caused flooding on the northern island of Hokkaido.

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