BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Thousands flee Japanese floods

Large areas of the country have been affected by the rains, triggered by a powerful typhoon.

Emergency services are using boats to take thousands to safety.

Rainfall in the region over a 24-hour period has amounted to nearly a third of the usual annual rainfall.

Industry and transport were badly disrupted, with some of Japan's biggest companies also closed for the day and airlines cancelling scores of domestic flights.

The famous high-speed bullet train was also shutdown, forcing 50,000 people to spend the night on trains.

Rain has also been exceptionally heavy recently in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Nagoya cut-off

The country's fourth-largest city, Nagoya, has been virtually cut off from the outside world.

Nagoya residents said the roads looked like rivers.

A record 93mm of rain fell in one hour and weather forecasters say more rain is expected for the next two days.

Nearly 380,000 people in the area have been told to leave their homes, but it was unclear how many had.

Car manufacturing giant Toyota Motor Corp, which is based near Nagoya, said the rains had halted plant operations.

Rescue efforts

Hundreds of soldiers have been sent to the area to join the rescue effort.

"The personnel are rescuing people trapped in houses, ferrying them over the water in boats and piling sandbags on river banks," said a spokesman for Japan's Ground Self-Defence Forces.

In some places residents could only escape the flooding by wading through chest high water holding on to ropes.

Others retreated to the upper stories of schools. Some were rescued from roof tops.

The victims included an elderly couple killed when their house in Komaki, near Nagoya, was flattened by a landslide.

Reports said around 30 people were injured and several were missing.

Typhoon Saomai is now over the Okinawan islands, packing winds of up to 160 km/h.

In Tokyo, a rare tornado ripped the roofs off some 10 houses in the capital, but no injuries were reported.