Japan typhoon toll mounts to 14

The death toll from a devastating typhoon in northern Japan rose to 14, officials said on Friday, as another powerful storm approached the country’s south.

Two bodies were found near rivers on the island of Hokkaido, said a police spokesman. On Thursday evening, the police found a body near a flooded river in the hard-hit town of Iwaizumi in the northern part of Honshu island, public broadcaster NHK said.

Typhoon Lionrock, which packed wind gusts of over 160 km an hour landed on Japan's northern Pacific coast on Tuesday evening, dumping torrential rain over a wide area. Overflowing rivers wreaked havoc, stranding many communities in the country's largely agricultural north.

Iwaizumi was the hardest hit, with 12 people dead, including nine, who were buried inside a building of an elderly care facility. As on Friday, over 1,000 people were still cut off in isolated communities in Iwate prefecture, which includes Iwaizumi, the prefectural government said.

Lionrock was the third typhon to strike Japan's northeast in about 10 days, the previous two causing at least two deaths. 

Japan faced another strong typhoon, Namtheun, which was heading north toward the southern main island of Kyushu with gusts of up to 180 km per hour, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Namtheun was on track to pass near the small subtropical island of Amami, which lies between Okinawa and Kyushu, on Saturday, the agency said.