Roundup: 2 dead, 4 missing in wake of Typhoon Haishen sideswiping Japan's Kyushu region

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TOKYO, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A powerful typhoon that lashed Japan's southwestern main island of Kyushu has left two people dead, four missing and more than 100 injured, local media reported Tuesday.

Typhoon Haishen wreaked havoc in southwestern Japan, knocking out power to around 475,000 houses in Kyushu and severely disrupting flights and train services including Shinkansen bullet trains, local officials said.

Haishen brought hurricane-like winds to wide swathes of Kyushu along with torrential downpours, storms surges, flooding and landslides, they added.

In Kagoshima Prefecture, a women in her 70s died from a fatal head injury after falling into a gutter on the street as she was walking to her friend's house on Sunday, local media reported.

A man in Saga Prefecture also lost his life while carrying out reinforcing work on the windows on the second floor of his house, local accounts said.

In Miyazaki Prefecture, meanwhile, four people who may have been in buildings that were hit by a landslide and swept into a nearby river, remain unaccounted for, local rescue officials said.

Two of those missing are believed to be Vietnamese trainees who work at a local construction company, local media said.

After 10 hours of being buried under a landslide, the owner of the company was finally able to dig his way to freedom, according to local reports.

The two others missing from the construction site that doubled as a private residence, include a woman in her 60s and her son in his 30s, local reports said.

Of the more than 100 people injured, while many of them were in Kyushu, the powerful storm also caused a number of injuries to people in the Kinki and Chugoku regions in western Japan, local authorities said.

Kyushu Railway Co. said it is planning to restart its Shinkansen bullet train services Tuesday in areas where it has been confirmed that they can operate safely. They were all temporarily suspended due to the typhoon.

West Japan Railway Co. also suspended its Sanyo Shinkansen bullet train services between Hiroshima and Hakata and Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train services were temporarily suspended as well due to the typhoon, Central Japan Railway Co. said.

The severity of the typhoon also forced domestic flights in Kyushu to be grounded, according to local operators.

Communication networks were also severely disrupted, with NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. saying their networks were affected not just in Kyushu, but also in Shikoku and Chugoku.

In the wake of the storm pummeling Kyushu before making landfall on the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsular, where Typhoon Haishen has already gone on to claim two lives in South Korea, according to local reports, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has still urged vigilance from people here for further torrential rain, strong winds and tidal surges in some areas.

In the 24 hours to 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday evening, rainfall of up to 150 mm was forecast for the Tokai region of central Japan, and 100 mm for the Kanto-Koshin region including Tokyo, the JMA said, as atmospheric conditions continue to remain unstable. Enditem

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