Quake in central Japan kills one, hurts over 150

Tokyo, Mar 25: A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 jolted the west coast of central Japan on Sunday, killing one person, injuring more than 150 and damaging hundreds of homes, Japanese officials and media said.

Landslides were triggered, roads buckled and at least 25 houses collapsed completely when the quake struck at 942 hrs (6:12 IST), Kyodo news agency said. The tremor, which was felt in Tokyo, seriously damaged some 200 houses, it said.

The quake's focus was at a depth of 11 km (7 miles) below the seabed off the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, about 300 km west of Tokyo. The peninsula is a mountainous district known for its hot spring resorts.

A 52-year-old woman died in Wajima, a resort and fishing town on the western side of the peninsula, after being trapped under a stone lantern that toppled in her garden, officials said.

About 40 people were being treated for injuries, mostly minor, in hospital in Wajima, a town of around 34,000 people, media said.

''Sprinklers went on, some walls collapsed. It's really bad,'' a hotel employee in Wajima told NHK television.

Anxious residents gathered outside their homes in Wajima, some holding children in their arms, as weak aftershocks were felt in the area and officials warned more could be in store.

More than 1,000 Wajima residents whose homes were damaged were evacuated to elementary schools acting as shelters, Kyodo said.

TV footage showed collapsed wooden houses, tiles from roofs scattered on narrow streets and a man digging through piles of boards from a fallen house in Wajima.

''I wasn't able to stand at all, it was really terrible'', a woman in Wajima told NHK.

In Nanao, another resort and fishing city with a population of around 60,000, ambulance services were flooded with calls to help people who had suffered burns and injuries, Kyodo said.

''I looked outside and electric poles were shaking,'' said Hiroshi Tanaka, an official at the fire department in Nanao.

''Residents called in but they were calm and there weren't many serious injuries,'' Tanaka said. ''One cook at an inn was deep-frying food and got burns.'' Some 400 police from neighbouring prefectures and 30 troops were to head for the site to provide assistance, media reported.

''We want to ensure the safety of residents and do our best in rescue efforts,'' Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

Tsunami Warning Lifted

The Japan Meteorological Agency originally estimated the magnitude at 7.1 but later revised it to 6.9. It had earlier estimated the depth of the focus at 50 km.

Some trains were halted, people were trapped in elevators and there were reports of power outages in some areas. Water was cut off to 4,500 homes, Kyodo reported.

Flights were suspended between Tokyo and local airports in Ishikawa, but high-speed bullet trains resumed service after being halted for checks, Kyodo reported.

A tsunami warning for waves of up to 50 cm issued for Ishikawa prefecture was later lifted after small tsunamis hit hit in some areas.

Electric power companies said there were no reports of irregularities at nuclear plants in the area.

Separately, two strong earthquakes struck on Sunday near Vanuatu in the South Pacific, Australia's geological agency reported, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The first, measured at magnitude 7.3, occurred two minutes before the quake in central Japan. Vanuatu's second quake, at magnitude 7.1, came about half an hour later.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more than 3,000.

That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400.

Reuters

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