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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| 7.2 quake shakes northern Japan, killing 3 |
| 2008-06-14 |
| A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked a rural area of northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least three people, triggering landslides and reportedly knocking down a bridge, fire and disaster management officials said. Kyodo News agency said at least 100 people were injured. Officials confirmed 69 injuries and seven people missing. Another 100 people were trapped at a hot springs, according to the government's Disaster Agency, but details of their situation remained unclear. Two nuclear power plants in the area were undergoing inspections but there were no immediate reports of damage, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. Electricity had been cut to about 29,000 households in the quake zone, he said. There was no danger of tsunami. The 8:43 a.m. quake was centered in the northern prefecture (state) of Iwate about 280 miles north of Tokyo. It was located about 5 miles underground — revised from an initially estimated depth of 6.2 miles. It was felt as far away as the capital. "It shook so violently that I couldn't stand still. I had to lean on the wall," said Masanori Oikawa, an Oshu city official at home near the epicenter when the quake struck. "When I rushed to the office, cabinets had been thrown onto the floor and things on the desks were scattered all over the place." One of the deaths was a man who ran out of a building in fear and was hit by a passing truck, and the other confirmed death was a man who was buried in a landslide while he was fishing, Machimura said. A third victim was a 48-year-old construction worker who was hit by a falling rock at a dam in Iwate, according to the National Police Agency. Fire and Disaster Management Agency spokesmen said at least 64 people were injured, including at least two people who in critical condition. One of them was a dam worker in Iwate, who was hit by falling rock. National broadcaster NHK said 67 people were hurt. Norio Sato, a city official in one of the hardest-hit cities, Kurihara, said a landslide swallowed 15 construction workers, leaving three of them still missing, while the remaining managed to climb out on their own. Four people at Komanoyu hot springs were also missing after a separate landslide hit the resort hotel, said another city official, Katsuyuki Sato. Footage shot from media helicopters showed numerous landslides onto rural roads running along knots of mountains separated by long stretches of rice fields. The footage aired on national broadcaster NHK also showed a bridge that had collapsed. |
| Posted by:ryuge |