Thousands evacuated as tropical storm bears down on Tokyo

Typhoon Neoguri, which weakened to a tropical storm, swept east toward Tokyo, threatening to hit the city overnight with heavy rains and strong winds after leaving at least two dead and forcing the evacuation of almost 90,000 people.

Neoguri was downgraded from typhoon to tropical storm before making landfall this morning. Strong winds and high waves could reach the Tokyo region as early as tonight, with gusts reaching 90 kmh around the city and 108 kmh on the nearby Izu Islands.

Cooler sea temperatures and Japan's mountainous landscape is expected to weaken the storm.

Two deaths yesterday were attributed to Neoguri, including that of a 12-year-old boy who was killed in a landslide in Nagiso in the central prefecture of Nagano, according to a statement from Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

The disaster agency also said the storm was responsible for the death of an 83-year-old man whose body was found in an irrigation canal in the Fukushima prefecture city of Koriyama in northeastern Japan.

The storm was responsible for 37 injuries in southern Japan, three of them serious, according to the disaster agency. Officials in the Kyushu city of Amakusa urged 87,327 residents to take shelter in gyms and other centers yesterday as the storm threatened homes.