Typhoon Jebi, the strongest storm to hit Japan in over 25 years, has caused a fuel tanker weighing more than 2,500 tonnes to crash into the bridge connecting Izumisano City to a nearby airport.
The Japanese coastguard has reported none of the vessel’s 11 crew members were injured, but the bridge was badly damaged.
The boat had been anchored in Osaka Bay but it was swept toward the bridge by the typhoon. Several other vessels, including salvage barges, were also swept away at Kobe-Osaka port after the weather snapped their mooring ropes.
Television footage of the storm hitting the country showed waves pounding the coastline, sheet metal tumbling across a car park where cars were turned on their sides, dozens of second-hand cars on fire at an exhibition area, and a big Ferris wheel spinning around in the strong wind.
As the typhoon made landfall, a 71-year-old man was found dead under a collapsed warehouse, probably brought down by the wind, and a man in his 70s fell from the roof of a house and died, NHK public television reported, adding more than 90 were injured.
Broadcaster TBS put the number of deaths at six.
Tides in some areas were the highest since a typhoon in 1961, NHK said, with flooding covering one runway at Kansai airport in Osaka, forcing closure of the airport and leaving tourists stranded.
"This storm is super (strong). I hope I can get home," a woman from Hong Kong told NHK at the airport.
Reuters contributed to this report
