UPDATE 1-WHO watching Japan flu cases closely

* WHO watching Japan flu cases closely

* Confirmed H1N1 flu cases rise to 8,451, death toll to 72

* Confirmed cases in Ecuador and Peru

* Turkey and India also report flu infection (adds WHO comments, changes dateline to GENEVA)

GENEVA, May 16 (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation is closely monitoring the situation in Japan after three students from the same high school who had not travelled abroad came down with the new H1N1 flu, a senior WHO official said on Saturday.

The city of Kobe is closing some schools for a week after eight people, including the three students, were confirmed as being infected with the disease, also known as swine flu, Kyodo news agency reported. [ID:nLG451600]

"We are just watching the developments very carefully," acting assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda told reporters.

But Fukuda said it was not clear at this stage whether the outbreak in Japan would cause the WHO to declare a full pandemic, raising its alert level to the top of a 6-point scale.

The WHO raised its pandemic alert on April 29 to 5 on the scale, meaning a pandemic is imminent. Proof the disease was spreading in a region outside North America, where it originated, would trigger an increase to 6.