Typhoon Halong leaves up to 10 dead in Japan: reports

As many as 10 people died and dozens were injured as Typhoon Halong slammed into the Japanese archipelago over the weekend, reports said Monday, with heavy rain still lashing the country's north.
      
The storm was moving over the Sea of Japan (East Sea) Monday morning, after making landfall on the largest and most populous island of Honshu at the weekend, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.        
The outer bands of the storm were continuing to lash northern Japan with heavy rain as officials warned of landslides, floods and possible tornadoes in the area.
      
The agency downgraded the typhoon to a tropical storm at 9:00 am (0000 GMT) Monday as it heads toward the far eastern coast of Russia.
      
The storm, as well as heavy rain last week, killed two people and injured 86 across the country, public broadcaster NHK reported.        

But the Nikkei newspaper said as many as 10 deaths were linked to the storm.
      
Among the victims, the body of an Iranian man was found in Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo, while two Japanese women died in the country's west, the Nikkei said.
      
The National Police Agency declined to confirm the number of deaths from the storm, saying it had yet to compile a nationwide total.
      
The coastguard on Monday resumed searching for a man who went missing apparently while surfing during the storm, off Wakayama in western Japan.
      
"Police and the coastguard dispatched one rescue boat and two helicopters but we have not found any sign of him," a police spokesman said.
                      
Local officials on Monday scrambled to clean up in the aftermath of the storm.
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