TOKYO, JAPAN (AFP) – A powerful earthquake struck central Japan yesterday, leaving at least one person dead and 21 injured, as rescuers searched for another trapped under rubble after several houses collapsed.
The 6.5 magnitude quake hit the central Ishikawa region in mid-afternoon at a depth of 12 kilometres, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Weather officials warned residents of possible aftershocks and landslides in the days ahead but said there was no risk of a tsunami.
“There was a big, long tremor that lasted about two minutes. I felt scared because the shaking went on and on,” a local government official in the city of Suzu, who declined to give her name, told public broadcaster NHK.
Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters in the capital Tokyo one person was reported dead and there were “multiple reports of collapsed buildings”.
The victim fell from a ladder, a crisis management official in Suzu told AFP, adding that 21 other people had been injured.
The local fire and disaster management agency said at least three structures had been destroyed with two people trapped inside.
One had been pulled from the debris and sent to hospital and rescuers were searching for the other.
NHK footage showed traditional wooden houses destroyed or tilting with broken windows and damaged roofs. In aerial shots, a mountain slope can be seen collapsed.
Yesterday was a public holiday in Japan, part of a run of days off known as ‘Golden Week’, a time when many people travel for leisure or to visit family.
Shinkansen bullet trains were suspended between the cities of Nagano and Kanazawa, a popular tourist destination, but resumed less than two hours later, according to Japan Railway.
The quake registered an upper six on the Japanese Shindo seismic scale, which goes up to a maximum of seven.
The United States Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.2 and said it struck just off the coast, but Japan’s Meteorological Agency placed the epicentre on land.
Japanese Disaster Prevention Minister Koichi Tani said there were reports of multiple landslides and some locals had taken refuge in evacuation shelters.
