A powerful typhoon that battered Tokyo overnight with record winds killed two people, police said Monday, as cancelled trains caused commuter chaos and more than 100 flights were scrapped, leaving thousands stranded at the airport.
Typhoon Faxai, packing winds of up to 207 kilometers (129 miles) per hour, made landfall in Chiba just east of the capital before dawn, after barreling through Tokyo Bay.
The transport disruptions unleashed by the storm came less than two weeks before the start of the Rugby World Cup, and delayed the arrival of the Australian team — a reminder that Japan’s typhoon season could present challenges for organizers.
Police confirmed two people were killed in the storm — a woman in her fifties who was found dead in Tokyo and an elderly man in the neighboring Chiba prefecture.
Security camera footage showed that high winds pushed her across a street and into a wall, while the 87-year-old man was found dead in the woods under a fallen tree.
The storm injured more than 30 people, including a woman who sustained serious injuries after gusts toppled a protective netting structure at a golf driving range onto nearby houses.
Non-compulsory evacuation orders were issued to hundreds of thousands and authorities said more than 2,000 people had taken refuge in shelters at one point.
Source: AFP
