Rescue efforts underway as Typhoon Hagibis kills eight in Japan

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At least eight people were killed and more than seven million were urged to evacuate as a powerful typhoon bore down on Tokyo on Saturday, bringing with it the heaviest rain and winds in 60 years.

Japan's military scrambled Sunday to rescue people trapped by flooding in the aftermath of powerful Typhoon Hagibis. By Sunday morning, the significantly weakened storm had moved back off land, but it left in its wake a trail of destruction.

Serious flooding was reported in central Japan's Nagano, where a burst levee sent swollen waters from the Chikuma river gushing into residential neighborhoods, flooding homes up to the second floor.

The military deployed helicopters to rescue people seen in aerial footage standing on balconies waving towels to attract attention.

Residents check on homes damaged by strong winds brought by Typhoon Hagibis in Ichihara, Chiba prefecture, Japan, October 12, 2019. /VCG photo

Surging waves on the coast of Shizuoka, central Japan, ahead of the arrival of Typhoon Hagibis, October 12, 2019. /VCG photo

"Overnight, we issued evacuation orders to 427 households, 1,417 individuals," said Yasuhiro Yamaguchi, an emergency official at Nagano city.

"It is not clear how many of those households have been affected," he added, saying while the river level was no longer on the rise, water was still going higher in residential areas.

Aerial footage showed a row of bullet trains half-submerged in muddy waters at a depot in Nagano.

Hagibis caused transport chaos over a long holiday weekend in Japan, grounding all flights in the Tokyo region, and forcing the suspension of most trains and many bullet trains serving the capital.

Taped up windows and bags filled with water are seen at a convenience store in the Shinagawa district of Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2019. /VCG photo

Flight information board at the Haneda International airport in Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2019. /VCG photo

A man walks past empty shelves in a store as typhoon Hagibis heads towards Tokyo, Japan, October 11, 2019. /VCG photo

The strong typhoon smashed into the main Japanese island of Honshu around 7:00 pm (1000 GMT) Saturday as one of the most violent typhoons in recent years, with wind gusts of up to 216 kilometers per hour (134 miles per hour).

Some 80 injuries have been reported so far, while more than 270,000 households lost power, Japanese National Broadcaster NHK said.

Two Rugby World Cup games scheduled for Saturday were canceled on safety grounds. The cancellations are reported to be the first in the tournament's 32-year history. And on Sunday morning, organizers said they had been forced to cancel a third fixture - Namibia-Canada - but gave the go-ahead to two others and were weighing up the fourth match scheduled, the crunch Japan-Scotland game.

"We were left with no option but to cancel the match on safety grounds," said tournament director Alan Gilpin.

(With input from AFP and Reuters)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency ,Reuters