7 Dead As Typhoon Lan lashes Japan 

Tokyo: At least seven persons were killed and over 90 injured as typhoon Lan lashed wide swathes of Japan after making landfall in central Japan early on Monday.

This season's 21st typhoon made landfall at Shizuoka Prefecture central Japan around 3 am local time and moved across the Kanto region in eastern Japan, leaving behind a trail of destruction, with rivers bursting their banks and landslides engulfing homes. The typhoon was downgraded to an extratropical cyclone around 3 pm east of Hokkaido in northern Japan.

The powerful typhoon has brought heavy rainfall, with the western region of Wakayama Prefecture seeing as much as 800 mm of rain through a 48-hour period to Sunday evening. According to the weather agency, Mie Prefecture was also hit hard, with the storm dumping 700 mm of rain through the same period, which also caused extensive flooding in parts of Nara Prefecture.

A 63-year-old man was killed after strong winds brought down scaffolding at a construction site in the city of Fukuoka, southwestern Japan. In Yamaguchi Prefecture, in western Japan, a 70-year-old man died after being forced to dive into the sea following his boat's engine failure. In Osaka Prefecture, a 68-year-old man was found dead in a submerged car, while a man in his 80s died from head injuries after falling in Osaka city, local media reported.

In hard-hit Mie Prefecture, a 29-year-old man also died in a submerged car and in Wakayama Prefecture, an 82-year-old man died after his house was levelled by a mudslide. Over 90 people were injured across the nation, according to government data. Japan's two major airline carriers, Japan Airlines Co and All Nippon Airways Co cancelled more than 100 flights on Monday, with 25,000 passengers affected.

The Shinkansen bullet train services were suspended along parts of the Tokaido line, and local services in Tokyo and Osaka were disrupted during rush hour Monday morning. Evacuation orders were issued in some cities and towns, and vote counting following Sunday's lower house election was delayed in areas where access to polling stations was affected by the typhoon.

-IANS