Powerful typhoon injures dozens in Japan

TOKYO (AFP) - Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes as a powerful typhoon lashed Japan's southern island of Okinawa Friday, grounding hundreds of flights and injuring at least 34 people, reports said.

Typhoon Man-yi, described as one of the strongest in memory, whipped up waves of 12 metres (40 feet) off the subtropical island's coasts and overturned trucks.

The typhoon is expected to smash into mainland Japan's southern island of Kyushu on Saturday and may then hit the Tokyo region, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

In Okinawa, television footage showed men who had been trying to clear the damage forced to cling to trees to withstand the violent wind and rain, which uprooted trees and flattened large fences.

"This is one of the biggest typhoons we've experienced in Okinawa," a local hotel employee said by telephone.

"We islanders are very nervous. It's fairly dangerous to go out or even drive a car as trash and broken trees are flying in the air," he said.

Two men aged 78 and 66 were seriously hurt when they were blown over in high winds, news agency Kyodo reported, citing the local authorities.

They were among 31 people injured in Okinawa alone since the typhoon approached Thursday, it said, adding that the storm had cut off electricity to 134,000 households in the Okinawa archipelago.

"The winds are so strong. Our staff are on standby at branch offices, waiting for the winds to calm down," a spokeswoman at Okinawa Electric Power said.

In a separate incident, a 48-year-old man was injured after falling six metres while trying to fix a television antenna on his roof, officials said.

More than 10,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes as the typhoon approached.

Authorities in Kagoshima prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu advised more than 8,760 people to evacuate, while in neighbouring Miyazaki prefecture, 2,390 people were told to evacuate as 78 houses were flooded.

Heavy rain was also reported in parts of the Japanese mainland, with 79 millimetres (3.16 inches) drenching the city of Hyuga on Kyushu island in one hour alone, raising fears of landslides.

"There may be a serious disaster, as the typhoon is approaching just after a stretch of rain," said Yasunori Nakatake, an official in Saito city in Miyazaki.

"We warned our residents to be on alert as winds and rain are expected to be much stronger from now on," Nakatake said.

Man-yi, described as "extremely strong" by the meteorological agency, is packing wind gusts of up to 252 kilometres an hour (156 miles an hour) and moving north at 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) an hour.

More than 370 flights have been cancelled, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The typhoon may cross the Tokyo region early Sunday, the meteorological agency said, warning of torrential rain, flooding and landslides.

Man-yi was named after a strait that is now a reservoir in Hong Kong.

Japan and other nations in the western Pacific are hit each year by lethal typhoons. Last year, Typhoon Shanshan killed nine people in Japan and injured 300 others.