Japan cancelled more than 200 flights and many ferry services to its southern islands Tuesday as a typhoon churned in before likely heading toward the Korean peninsula. Typhoon Kompasu, packing gusts of up to 216 kilometres (134 miles) per hour near its centre, slammed Okinawa in the country's far south Tuesday afternoon, the Japan meteorological agency said. The agency issued a warning of heavy rains and strong gales and told residents to be on alert against possible landslides and floods. A blackout hit 1,320 houses in Okinawa, "but we have not received any reports of casualties following the typhoon", said an official of Okinawa prefecture's crisis management office. The typhoon was moving northwest at a speed of 20 kilometres per hour through the East China Sea and on its current course could hit the Korean peninsula around Thursday, the agency said.