TOKYO: Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes as a powerful typhoon lashed Japan's southern island of Okinawa on Friday, grounding hundreds of flights and injuring at least 34 people, reports said.

Typhoon Man-yi, described as one of the strongest in memory, whipped up waves of 12 metres off the subtropical island's coasts and overturned trucks.

The typhoon is expected to smash into mainland Japan's southern island of Kyushu on Saturday and may then hit the Tokyo region, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

In Okinawa, television footage showed men who had been trying to clear the damage forced to cling to trees to withstand the violent wind and rain, which uprooted trees and flattened large fences.

“This is one of the biggest typhoons we've experienced in Okinawa,” a local hotel employee said by telephone.

“We islanders are very nervous. It's fairly dangerous to go out or even drive a car as trash and broken trees are flying in the air,” he said.—AFP