Typhoon-strength storm leaves 3 dead, 300 injured in Japan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japanese authorities issued severe weather warnings Tuesday, April 3 as a spring storm battered the country, leaving at least three people reported killed and about 300 injured, M&C reported citing DPA.

An 81-year-old man was killed in Toyama city, central Japan, when a storeroom collapsed in heavy winds, news broadcaster NHK reported. A 69-year-old woman died in the south-western city of Mitoyo when another warehouse collapsed.

In Oshu city in northern Japan, a 96-year-old man fell out of the third floor onto the roof of the next house.

Bullet train services were suspended in many parts of the country and more than 700 flights were canceled. The official weather warning was issued for the Tokyo area and the north of the country.

Heavy winds knocked out power to 15,600 households in central and western Japan and thousands of homes in the Tokyo metropolitan areas. Traffic was also disrupted across the country.

Gusts of 150 kilometres per hour were recorded in Wakayama city in the west of the country, while winds of 123 kilometres per hour were logged at Cape Muroto on the south-western island of Shikoku, Kyodo News reported.

Heavy rains also hit western and south-western Japan, with hourly precipitation reaching 57.5 millimetres at the main airport on the southern island of Tokunoshima, Kyodo said.

An active low-pressure system and fronts were expected to bring strong winds to northern and north-eastern Japan until the end of Wednesday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.