Storm hammers Japan with rain, man dies driving into pond

Tropical Depression Talas unleashed fierce rainfall Saturday in parts of Japan, setting off landslides, halting trains and killing a man after he crashed his car into a pond.

Police said the man who drove into a pond in central Japan's Shizuoka prefecture was rushed to a hospital but died.

In another part of Shizuoka, a road collapsed from the heavy rainfall, and rescue efforts were underway, they said. Japanese media reports said one man managed to crawl out of a truck that got stuck but another man was missing.

Separately, three people were injured in a mudslide in Shizuoka, according to a prefectural police spokesperson.

Rivers swelled in Shizuoka's Hamamatsu city, where video shared on social media showed cars wading through watery streets. News footage showed an underground passage for pedestrians at a train station flooded with muddy water. Because trains stopped temporarily, about 1,000 people were stranded at an arena in Shizuoka where a concert was held Friday night.

The storm is the latest to batter Japan after typhoons have caused several deaths and damage in recent weeks.

Talas was headed toward Tokyo and hammering a wide area around the capital with heavy showers. Landslide warnings were issued along the storm’s path.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yurikageyama