A TEACHER from the region has been caught up in a typhoon that has led to the evacuation of more than a million people in the Far East.

Five people died on Saturday when Typhoon Krosa tore through Taiwan. Trees were uprooted, power lines collapsed and torrential rain led to wide-scale flooding and landslides.

More than a million people had to leave their homes after winds reaching up to 79mph swept into South-East China yesterday.

John Macfarlane, from Newcastle, lives on the Japanese island of Ishigaki, in an area of the Pacific known as Typhoon Alley because it sees up to 12 hurricanes a year.

Krosa began south of Ishigaki earlier last week and passed over the island on Friday night.

Mr Macfarlane said yesterday: "We were very lucky that it did not hit us too badly this time.

"Krosa started south of us and worked its way up.

"Typhoons are a regular occurrence here, so everyone was ready for it. This one was actually not as bad as one they had last year. Boats ended up on land and cars ended up in the sea that time."

Mr Macfarlane, 24, is an English teacher and lives in Ishigaki. Krosa is the second typhoon to hit the island since he moved there In August.

"The last typhoon we had caused quite a lot of damage.

"We had no electricity and we couldn't leave our houses for two days.

"The port in Ishigaki City is full of damaged cars at the moment. People have abandoned them there because there are no scrap yards on the island. They're waiting there to be taken away by boat.

"Ishigaki means Stone Wall in Japanese - and the whole place is designed to cope with typhoons. The buildings are basically flat concrete slabs - they don't look very pretty, but they are built to get through these storms."

Mr Macfarlane is due to return to the UK in August next year when his placement in Japan ends.