Typhoon Dolphin hits Japan, heads towards China

Typhoon Dolphin has hit Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, injuring five people and cutting power to 14,000 buildings, and is heading towards eastern China, where authorities have shut down ports, schools and tourist sites.

Okinawa Island, and Amami Island in Kagoshima prefecture, are the main areas affected in Japan.

Five elderly people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, with three falling due to the wind, the Okinawan prefectural government said.

Dolphin has caused flight cancellations in Okinawa, as well as in China and Taiwan.

The typhoon, named after Hong Kong’s Chinese white dolphin, comes amid a record-breaking heatwave in East Asia. Three lions in a Japanese zoo died from suspected heatstroke, while in South Korea, the extreme temperatures were blamed for more than 20 deaths.

Dolphin grew out of a tropical depression that emerged on July 26, moving at 45 kilometres per hour (30 miles per hour) over the open waters of the Central Pacific Ocean as it embarked on a journey of several thousand kilometres across the Pacific.

Over the course of its journey, it strengthened to a tropical storm and then to a severe tropical storm before burgeoning into a typhoon and then a very strong typhoon on July 28.

On Saturday, Dolphin was about 160km (100 miles) northwest of Kume Island in Okinawa as of 03:00 GMT, moving northwest at 15km/h (9mph), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It had maximum sustained winds of 162km/h (100mph) with gusts reaching 216km/h (134mph).