At least four dead as typhoon slams into Japan

A powerful typhoon slammed into disaster-ravaged Japan on Wednesday, authorities said, after it already killed at least four people.

Typhoon Roke made landfall near Hamamatsu, central Japan, at around 2:00 pm (0500 GMT), on course to move northeast across the nation’s major island of Honshu, the meteorological agency said.

More than a million people were initially warned to leave their homes over fears that the torrential rains Typhoon Roke is expected to bring will cause widespread flooding.

“The rain and wind is raging out there as people on the street were staggering,” Yoshinori Ito, a spokesman with Hamamatsu City, said by phone.

“Visibility is quite low due to the storm,” Ito said. “We urge all of our citizens to be vigilant for now.”

The typhoon comes six months after a devastating earthquake and tsunami sparked a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant, and less than a month after a vicious storm left 100 dead.

Four people have been found dead in central and western Japan, while two people were missing in the central prefecture of Gifu, including a young boy who disappeared on his way home from primary school.

Many evacuation advisories were dropped by Wednesday lunchtime, but they remained in force for around 330,000 people nationwide.

It was not clear how many had followed the advice, which falls short of mandatory evacuation orders.