Typhoon Halong sweeps Japan

Japan is only just recovering from its last storm

A typhoon which killed 10 people over the weekend in the Philippines is heading across Japan.

Typhoon Halong, named after a bay in northern Vietnam, has already hit southern Japan's Okinawa island where thousands of homes are now without electricity.

A police spokesman in Okinawa said three people had been injured during the storms, but that none of the injuries was life threatening.

The typhoon is the latest in a succession of tropical storms in the Philippines and Japan over the past week in which nearly 100 people have died.

Just days ago tropical storm Chataan battered Japan, causing five deaths and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

Heading north

All 200 flights from Naha, the capital of Okinawa, were cancelled, and the majority of roads were blocked by heavy rainfall.

The typhoon is now forecast to be heading north-east and was expected to hit the southern island of Kyushu on Monday afternoon and the main island, Honshu, on Tuesday.

Weather forecasters say it may even reach the Russian island of Sakhalin, north of Japan.

One of those injured on Okinawa was a 25-year-old woman who hurt her head when an apartment door was flung open by the wind on Sunday night, police said.

Philippines' storms

Meanwhile people in the Philippines are counting their losses after at least 58 people died there in severe storms over the last week.

Three of the latest victims died when their house was buried by a landslide and another was fatally bitten by a snake that had been forced from its home by the floods.

Seasonal monsoon rains had been exacerbated by the nearby passing of Typhoon Halong.

But meteorologists say the severe weather will continue in the northern Philippines for a few days because of a new low pressure over the South China Sea.