国际英语新闻:Powerful typhoon leaves 15 dead, 43 missing in western Japan: Kyodo

OSAKA, Japan, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A powerful typhoon which made landfall on Shikoku Island Saturday continued to ravage western Japan on Sunday,leaving 15 people dead and 43 missing , Kyodo News reported.

In Wakayama Prefecture alone, eight people were killed and 32 remained missing as of Sunday, the report said, quoting prefectural police. Earlier in the day, five people went missing after their houses in the prefecture were swept away by a landslide caused by Talas, the season's 12th typhoon.

A mudslide blocked part of a road in Tanabe in the prefecture, isolating 308 people in 193 households, Meanwhile, two-thirds of a 39-meter long iron bridge over the Nachi River in the town of Nachikatsuura collapsed and was washed. The bridge serves JR West' s Kise Line, but no injuries were reported as the train operator had halted operations on the line as the typhoon approached.

A person is being rescued after a flood isolated the resident's home caused by a strong tropical storm Talas in Nachikatsuura town, Wakayama prefecture, in western Japan September 4, 2011.

Japan's central government dispatched a team of investigators Sunday to assess the scale of the damage in the prefecture hard hit by the the typhoon.

As of 3 p.m. local time, Talas, packing winds of up to 108 kilometers per hour near its center, was traveling slowly northeast over waters off the Sea of Japan coast in western Japan after moving across Okayama and Tottori prefectures on the main island of Honshu, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.