Floods have inundated an old people's home in Japan killing nine people, police said on Wednesday, taking the death toll from a typhoon battering northern parts of the country to at least 11.

Police found the nine bodies in the nursing home in the town of Iwaizumi on Wednesday but it was not clear when their home was inundated.

Nor was it clear why people there had not been taken to safety before the storm struck.

More than 1,000 other people were forced from their homes by the flooding brought by Typhoon Lionrock.

The body of a man was found near a river in Iwaizumi and a dead woman was found in Kuji city, police said.

Television showed pictures of flooded rivers with cars and homes partly submerged while rescuers picked up stranded people by helicopter.

The worst-hit Iwate prefecture was devastated by a big earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Several people were missing on the northern island of Hokkaido, police said.