Typhoon Lan sweeps across Japan, killing 2

Houses are flooded in Kinokawa, Wakayama prefecture, western Japan after heavy rain brought by a powerful typhoon on Monday, Oct. 23, 2017. (Yuki Sato / Kyodo News)

TOKYO - A powerful typhoon caused flooding and landslides along the Pacific coast of Japan, killing at least two people before heading out to sea Monday.

Typhoon Lan made landfall in central Japan around 3 a.m. Monday and swept across Tokyo before heading out to sea several hours later off northeastern Japan.

The body of a 70-year-old man whose boat developed engine trouble was found on a beach after he dove into the sea to try to grab a rope from another vessel, Kyodo News service reported. It also said a passer-by was killed when high winds brought down scaffolding at a construction site in Fukuoka city in southern Japan.

Heavy rains inundated neighbourhoods in Wakayama prefecture, south of Osaka. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that an 82-year-old man was found unconscious in the morning after a mudslide hit his house overnight in Wakayama's Kinokawa city.

The storm delayed vote counting in Wakayama and other parts of western Japan for national elections Sunday.

Domestic flights were cancelled and some of Japan's high-speed "bullet" trains, as well as other trains, were suspended. Parts of expressways were closed as a precaution for possible flooding.

Authorities issued flood and landslide warnings and evacuation advisories to hundreds of thousands of residents ahead of the approaching typhoon. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 17 people were injured by the storm, all of them slightly.

Several Japanese networks on Monday showed dramatic footage of a man being pulled up by a rescue helicopter from the Tama River, west of Tokyo. Reports said that six men were rescued in and around the river, and that police and fire officials were searching for others who may need help.