Seven dead as typhoon hits Japan's south, scores hurt

TOKYO, Sep 17 (Reuters) Seven people were dead, one missing and more than a hundred injured as a powerful typhoon battered Japan's main southwestern island of Kyushu today, triggering floods and landslides and paralysing transportation.

Typhoon Shanshan was carrying winds of up to 140 km per hour near its centre and lashing many parts of western Japan with torrential rain, Japan's Meteorological Agency said.

High winds overturned cars and damaged buildings in the city of Nobeoka on Kyushu, killing three people, public broadcaster NHK said. About 100 were injured, a city official said.

''The roof has broken and water is coming in. I don't know what to do,'' a sobbing woman told NHK in Nobeoka, gesturing at her damaged home.

An express train was also derailed by high winds in the city, injuring six people, NHK said.

Hundreds of flights in and out of southwestern Japan were cancelled today, and all Kyushu Railway Co trains were halted, Kyodo news agency said.

Thousands of people fled their homes for shelters, Kyodo said, while about 390,000 households were without electricity on the island, Kyushu Electric Power Co said.

The eye of typhoon Shanshan was close to Sasebo on Kyushu, about 980 km southwest of Tokyo just after 1430 hrs and was moving north-northeast at 35 km per hour, the meteorological agency said.

Shanshan, now a Category 1 typhoon, is expected to fade into a tropical storm over the next 12 hours and head into the Sea of Japan, according to the UK-based Web site Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com).

Three people died in Saga prefecture on Kyushu yesterday due to landslides and flooding caused by the storm's heavy rain.

Rescuers also found the body of a 50-year-old firefighter who was swept away by a flooded river in Hiroshima, in the west of Japan's main island of Honshu, and were searching for a 27-year-old newspaper reporter who went missing late yesterday in the same area.

REUTERS MQA BD1628