Thousands of residents were also left without power as strong winds uprooted trees and damaged electric wires.

Nearly all domestic plane and ferry services were cancelled in the south of the country and landslides and flood waters disrupted traffic on highways and railroads.

Ewiniar -- which means storm god in Micronesian -- was moving at 35 kilometers (21 miles) per hour after hitting the southwestern island of Jindo, packing winds up to 112 kilometers per hour, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.

The typhoon dumped up to 23.4 centimeters (9.36 inches) of rain as it ploughed through the southern part of the peninsula, it said.

Heavy rain was also expected along the country's northeast coast late Monday before the typhoon moved into impoverished North Korea.

"It was the strongest wind to hit this area since typhoon Maemi (in 2003). But damage was less serious than I thought because Ewiniar moved so fast," Oh Kyong-Hwan, a fisherman in the southern port of Yeosu, told Yonhap news agency.

Maemi killed about 130 people, flooded 420,000 homes and caused extensive property loss.

Five people have been found dead with two others missing, the government's central disaster center said. All were swept away by flash floods or rain-swollen streams.

An 87-year-old woman was killed in the southern city of Cheongdo while a 68-year-old woman died after she was swept through a flooded irrigation ditch in the rural county of Hamyang, 330 kilometers south of Seoul.

"Ewiniar lost much of its power after battering the south coast but it is still strong enough to cause enormous damage," a disaster center official said.

"The toll may increase as we are receiving unconfirmed reports of casualties," he said.

Yonhap said at least eight were reported missing or dead, with a dozen people injured.

A landslide killed a 36-year-old woman in the southern port city of Busan, while a highschool student was reported missing and nine others were injured when a bus crashed into a river in Jinju, also on the south coast, it said.

Two people were also injured in Gongju, 140 kilometers (84 miles) south of Seoul, when a bus overturned after being struck by an uprooted tree.

Hundreds of schools were closed across the country, and more than 30,000 vessels were shore-bound or holed up at shelters.

"The typhoon weakened slightly after hitting the southwest coast. It will cut through western and central provinces before reaching the East Sea (Sea of Japan) tomorrow morning," meteorological center official Kuk Hyun-Hun said.

Ewiniar is the year's third typhoon. China also evacuated more than 7,600 people from exposed areas along its eastern coast.

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