Typhoon Sinlaku hit Taiwan on Saturday with wind gusts as high as 162kmh.

Twenty people were injured and thousands evacuated.

'The worst conditions now are in the mountains, where you can't get in or out,' said Mr Chang Deng-wang, disaster management director in Nantou county. 'Every village has a road cut off.'

Sinlaku eased in Taiwan on Sunday and is on track to reach southern Japan over the next two days as a tropical storm.

Typhoons regularly hit China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan in the summer, gathering strength from the warm waters of the Pacific or the South China Sea before weakening over land. -- REUTERS