Typhoon Dujuan tracker: Path of 80mph storm as more than one million urged to evacuate in Japan

At least two people have been confirmed dead and four missing on Tuesday after Typhoon Dujuan passed Japan’s Pacific coast, bringing record rainfall, triggering landslides and causing widespread transport disruption.

Earlier, at least 1.6 million people across six prefectures were ordered to evacuate as the Japan Meteorological Agency issued highest-level landslide warning for parts of the Izu Islands, including Oshima.

Police and firefighters are searching for survivors in Kanagawa Prefecture, which saw a series of landslides crushing homes.

In Yokosuka, a 64-year-old woman was declared dead after being found inside her home that was struck with mud and debris, while another 51-year-old man died in Chiba prefecture after he fell into a bamboo grove while operating heavy machinery to remove mud and debris.

In the Yokosuka neighbourhood, another couple in their 70s was missing after their home was hit by a landslide.

Two women in near Miura city are missing after debris flowed into their apartment complex.

A live tracker on Zoom Earth showed the 80mph storm passing the Tokyo metropolitan area, bringing torrential rain, powerful winds and a heightened risk of landslides across the Kanto region and other part of eastern Japan.

While the typhoon skirted past the coastline, rather than making direct landfall, conditions deteriorated rapidly. Japan’s 25th typhoon of the year, it is now moving away from the Japanese mainland to the northeast Tuesday morning.

The JMA warned that conditions would remain dangerous later on Tuesday as heavy rain continued to fall on already saturated ground.

Dujuan has already brought so much rainfall that authorities said that eight locations have witnessed record-breaking downpours over the past 24 hours, causing widespread flooding.

In Kimitsu City, over 15 inches of rainfall were recorded. Footage circulating on social media shows vehicles and pedestrians battling flooded streets and roads.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency had earlier warned of an “imminent threat to life”, but several warnings have since been downgraded. Only one, for Oshima Town about 68 miles south of Tokyo, remains active.

Authorities cautioned that linear rain bands could form over Kanto and central Japan, sharply raising the risk of flash floods and other rain-related disasters.

Linear bands, which ⁠have become a growing concern in Japan in recent years, can ⁠dump extraordinary amounts of rain over a narrow area for several hours.

“The total rainfall through Tuesday could exceed the average monthly rainfall for September, resulting in record-breaking heavy rain,” the agency said.

Landslide warnings were issued for Tokyo as well as for Chiba, Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures. In Kanagawa prefecture, south of Tokyo, firefighters were searching for a woman in her 60s after a landslide crushed the house she was in.

Yasuhiro Kaneko, of the Yokosuka city fire department, told the BBC that the woman was believed to have been buried alive and that rescue teams were working at the scene in heavy rain.

Takuya Hosomi, chief forecaster for the JPA, said it was “extremely likely that some form of disaster has already occurred in landslide-prone areas and similar zones”, and warned of “an imminent threat to life”.

At the Asian Games in central Aichi Prefecture, organisers postponed the equestrian eventing competition until Tuesday due to the approaching typhoon.

Around 400 flights have also been cancelled or suffered major delays amid the turbulent winds. Prime minister Sanae Takaichi’s departure for New York to attend the UN General Assembly was delayed by four hours because of the storm.

In Tokyo, some railway services were suspended.

Typhoon Dujuan comes amid a year of extreme weather events around the world, with unusually intense rainfall, flooding and tropical cyclones affecting regions from East Asia to North America and Europe.