Powerful Typhoon Lionrock lashed the Tohoku region late Tuesday afternoon, forcing transport services and schools to close down and residents to evacuate.

The typhoon made landfall at Ofunato on the Sanriku coast of Iwate Prefecture shortly before 6 p.m. Later in the evening it was tracking northwest and was expected to pass through the Tohoku region and reach the Sea of Japan by midnight, the Meteorological Agency said.

Responding to the typhoon, the 10th for the season and first to make landfall directly in the region that was devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, railways suspended bullet trains servicing Akita, Tokyo and Hokkaido.