Yaizu (Japan): A strong earthquake rocked
central Japan on Tuesday, injuring more than 100 people, triggering
a landslide and shutting down a nuclear power plant and bullet
trains, officials said.
The magnitude 6.4 tremor shook buildings, threw
objects from shelves and jolted people from their sleep in and
around Tokyo, the world`s largest urban area, at 0137 IST.
The quake hit in Suruga Bay on the Pacific Ocean
coast, about 170 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, at a depth of
27 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.
At least 101 people were injured, mostly by falling
objects such as television sets, in the worst-hit prefecture
of Shizuoka, including three who were in serious condition,
officials said.
Seven more people were injured in Tokyo and in
Kanagawa and Aichi prefectures, said the National Police
Agency.
"It was a huge tremble, like nothing I had experienced
before," said Tadao Negami, a 69-year-old resident of Mishima
city in Shizuoka.
The Hamaoka nuclear plant in the prefecture
automatically shut down two reactors when the quake hit,
operator Chubu Electric Power Co. said.
A company official said no radiation had leaked from
the plant. The utility said the quake caused power failures in
some 9,500 households.
Central Japan Railway Co. suspended Shinkansen bullet
trains in the quake-hit region but resumed the services
several hours later.
A large landslide triggered by the quake damaged the
Tomei Expressway at Makinohara, Shizuoka, causing long traffic
jams.
In Shizuoka city, parts of the stone wall around the
424-year-old Sunpu castle collapsed, said castle park official
Yasushi Watanabe.
Prime Minister Taro Aso`s office set up an emergency
centre shortly after the quake, which was followed by 13
noticeable aftershocks.
Japan`s Meteorological Agency, which measured the
quake at a revised 6.5, said there was no risk of a tsunami
after detecting initial waves about 40 centimetres high at
Omaezaki, Shizuoka.
"The quake was so scary, and the tsunami warning too,"
said Masaki Yamada, 44, a fisheries cooperative official in
the port of Yaizu, where a new 300-metre long crack ran along
the quay.
"Today`s event is a rehearsal for us in preparing for
a bigger, real disaster," he said.
Tokyo has long braced itself for a great quake, often
referred to as "the big one" -- over a magnitude of 8.0 --
while catastrophic quakes are also expected to strike some
time in the future in the Tokai and Nankai regions.
Bureau Report
