A tornado ripped through a northern Japanese town on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and injuring 25 more, officials said. Several hours after the twister, two people were missing and believed to be trapped under the rubble of flattened homes and offices. The tornado, which knocked out electricity and flipped over cars in the town of Saroma on the northern island of Hokkaido, was the deadliest tornado on record in Japan, the Associated Press reported. Local television showed a scene of devastation, with a wide swath of collapsed buildings, badly damaged cars and utility poles strewn across streets. Many of the victims were construction workers building a tunnel near the town, officials said. Tornados are relatively rare in Japan.
