Typhoon Talas leaves at least 15 dead in Japan

Heavy rains and mudslides from powerful Typhoon Talas killed at least 15 people in Japan as the storm moved northward past the country Sunday.

At least 43 are missing, local media said, according to The Associated Press.

Evacuation orders and advisories have been issued to 460,000 people in western and central Japan, Kyodo News agency reported.

Talas, which made landfall in Japan's western island of Shikoku on Saturday, and cut through the country's main island by early Sunday morning, was off the nation's western coast on Sunday afternoon, moving north-northeast at 6 mph, the Meteorological Agency said.

Television showed mudslides and flattened wooden houses by a swollen, dark brown river in western Japan's Nara prefecture.

A Meteorological Agency official said some more rain is expected even though the storm's center has moved past Japan and that residents should stay on alert.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said its tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, located in northern Japan, has not been affected by the storm.

Because of the storm's slow speed, the agency warned that heavy rains and strong winds are likely to continue and could lead to flooding and landslides.

Three homes were buried in a landslide in Wakayama prefecture, and one woman who was rescued whose identity was still being confirmed later died, four remained missing and a 14-year old girl was saved from the debris, police said.

Overall in the hard-hit prefecture, 10 people were dead and 32 people were missing, they said.

Seven people were reported missing in nearby Nara Prefecture, after homes were swept down a river, NHK said.

Among the dead were a woman who appeared to be in her 30s whose body was found in a river in Ehime prefecture on Shikoku, police said.

A 73-year-old man in Nara prefecture died after a landslide caused his house to collapse, police said.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44390910/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/

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