Typhoon Haishen hammers southern Japan with high winds and power outages

FILE PHOTO: High waves triggered by Typhoon Haishen crash against the coast of Amami Oshima island, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan September 5, 2020. Kyodo via REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) - Typhoon Haishen battered Japan's southern mainland with powerful winds and drenching rain, cutting power to tens of thousands of homes and prompting authorities to call for some 1.8 million people to evacuate.

Haishen was drawing closer to the main southern island of Kyushu. At 12:45 a.m. (1545 GMT on Sunday) on Monday its centre was in the East China Sea, about 110 km (68 miles) southeast of the Goto Islands, west of Nagasaki, according to Japan's meteorological agency.