A weakening typhoon is brushing by metropolitan Seoul after battering southern South Korea with heavy rain and high winds, leaving one person missing and a slew of damaged buildings, canceled flights and power outages.
Meanwhile, the Japan Meteorological Agency yesterday downgraded a separate storm from typhoon strength after it crossed a swath of the western part of the nation overnight.
The Korea Meteorological Administration said Typhoon Soulik’s force had diminished as it moved northeast, but was still expected to pound the nation’s mountainous eastern region with strong rain and winds before exiting the peninsula in the afternoon.
Photo: AP
Rain from Soulik also fell in Pyongyang throughout the morning, but the impact appeared to be mild.
Information on what preparations had been taken or if any damage had occurred in North Korea was not immediately available.
Seoul said a man in his 30s was injured and a 23-year-old woman was missing after she was apparently swept away in southern Jeju Island on Wednesday night. A 16-year-old boy was injured in Goheung, a southern mainland county, after a wall collapsed on Thursday.
About 22,000 power outages were reported at homes, buildings and farms in the southern regions and more than 700 flights were canceled on Thursday. No major damages were reported in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said that Typhoon Cimarron, now a tropical storm, was back at sea and heading for northern Japan after bringing heavy rain and high winds to Kobe and elsewhere in western Japan overnight.
Cimarron was moving north with maximum sustained winds of 90kph with gusts to 126kph, the agency said.
It was forecast to make landfall on southern Hokkaido yesterday night.
The storm caused scattered damage, flooding and landslides as it swept across western Japan the previous night.
A large wind turbine toppled on Awaji Island near Kobe and a worship hall collapsed at a Shinto shrine in Kyoto, leaving the roof almost on the ground.
More than 300 flights were canceled and bullet train service was suspended in the region.
Three students were believed to have been dragged into the ocean by strong waves while setting off fireworks at a beach in Shizuoka City as the typhoon approached on Wednesday night. Japanese media said the search for them resumed yesterday.
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