Japan typhoon kills 10, spares nuclear plant

A powerful typhoon that barrelled through Japan and threatened the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant killed at least 10 people including a woman aged 101, officials said yesterday

Japan typhoon kills 10, spares nuclear plant

A powerful typhoon that barrelled through Japan and threatened the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant killed at least 10 people including a woman aged 101, officials said yesterday.

Typhoon Roke, which churned across the main island of Honshu and through the already disaster-ravaged northeast, caused flooding and triggered landslides in an echo of a vicious storm earlier in the month that killed around 100 people.

Search and rescue: Fire fighters and officials try to lift a tree off the road
during their rescue operations after Typhoon Roke ravaged the area, causing further landslides. pic/afp

But it did not cause any further damage to the battered nuclear power plant, as had been feared, its operators said, after workers had scrambled to secure the facility to prevent more radiation from seeping out.

Police and rescuers recovered at least four bodies on last morning, including a 65-year-old woman who was buried when a mudslide engulfed her house in Iwate prefecture, officials said.

Two people, including the 101-year-old, were found dead in Shizuoka prefecture, where the typhoon made landfall on Wednesday, an official said.

In Sendai, the largest city in the northeastern region that was battered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that led to the atomic crisis, two sewerage workers went missing.

"We are aware that one body was recovered this morning but have not confirmed it belongs to one of the missing workers," he said.

Local police and rescuers recovered another body from a river in central Aichi prefecture and they were investigating whether the death was typhoon related, an official said.

A series of strong typhoons have hit Japan, which is still recovering from the massive quake and tsunami that left around 20,000 people dead or missing.