DHAKA: A large powerful typhoon moved slowly towards Japan’s Okinawa island chain on Saturday, packing heavy winds that disrupted flights and knocked out power.

Typhoon ‘Vongfong’ is Japan’s strongest storm this year and its winds gusted up to 234 kph. Fourteen people in Okinawa and Kagoshima prefecture in Kyushu were injured due to strong winds.

The Mainichi newspaper reported, says The Straits Times.

It was likely to be closest to Okinawa – 1,600 km south-west of Tokyo, and the home of the largest contingent of US troops in Japan – on Sunday morning Japan time, local media reports said.

The typhoon is expected to weaken as it moved north, however, and likely to hit land on Monday morning on the westernmost main island of Kyushu, before moving northeast towards Japan’s main island of Honshu on Tuesday.

BDST: 1504 HRS, OCT 11, 2014