Typhoon Malakas slams Japan, heading toward Tokyo

TOKYO: A powerful typhoon slammed into Japan on Tuesday, injuring at least eight people and dumping torrential rains that caused serious flooding and left some communities waterlogged.

Transportation across southernmost Kyushu -- hit by deadly quakes earlier this year -- and parts of western Japan came to a standstill as Typhoon Malakas ripped across the country, packing winds of up to 180-km per hour.

Television footage from public broadcaster NHK showed houses, cars and rice fields partly submerged in the muddy brown water in Miyazaki prefecture, where a record 578 millimetres of rain fell on one city in just 24 hours.

Cars and pedestrians sloshed through waterlogged streets while a wall of water washed away a bridge in the city of Kagoshima.

NHK said at least eight people were injured, and officials issued evacuation advisories that affected about 620,000 people.