Typhoon Tembin brought heavy downpours and strong winds while cutting across South Korea at high speed Thursday, leaving two dead and forcing scores of people to evacuate their homes, weather and police officials said.

Tembin, named after a Japanese term for the zodiac sign Libra, was moving northeastward at a speed of 29 kilometers per hour through Gangwon Province as of 10 p.m. and is expected to reach the East Sea late Thursday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

The weather service said the tropical storm was expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression early Friday.

A 52-year-old woman in South Jeolla Province was crushed to death by a steel gate that was knocked down by a gust of powerful wind at a construction site earlier in the day, police said.

Another woman working at the site suffered a serious injury and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

A 66-year-old man was buried to death in Cheonan, about 100 km south of Seoul, while two people in Busan were injured after being hit by a flying object.

Also in South Jeolla Province, two apartment complexes were destroyed with 36 more inundated, and as a result 48 people were forced to evacuate their homes, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Power supply was cut to nearly 100,000 households in several areas, but most of them were restored by Thursday evening, the NEMA said.

Airports and seaports in Jeju Island, Busan and other provincial cities halted operations in light of the storm, and a total of 201 flights scheduled to fly before 3 p.m. were canceled, the Korea Airports Corp. said.

North and South Jeolla Provinces were drenched by downpours of more than 200 millimeters per hour, while Seoul and nearby regions escaped direct damage from the tropical storm with the typhoon warning released later Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said it has suspended a search for missing Chinese fishermen whose boats ran aground in waters off Jeju on Tuesday during Typhoon Bolaven, which pounded South Korea earlier this week. Currently, nine crew members have been confirmed dead while six others remain missing. (Yonhap News)