A powerful typhoon packing winds of up to 270 kilometres per hour was churning towards Okinawa in southern Japan on Saturday, grounding nearly 80 flights, officials said.

Typhoon Sanba, located in the Pacific about 310km south of Okinawa at 3pm (HK time), was forecast to make landfall early on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

It was expected to move over the East China Sea and reach a strait between the Korean peninsula and Japan’s main island of Kyushu on Monday afternoon.