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KURIHARA, Japan: A powerful earthquake struck northern Japan on Saturday, killing two people and injuring dozens more as it set off landslides, tore up roads and shattered windows.
The quake, which was revised up to 7.2 on the Richter scale, rattled a largely agricultural region. It was strong enough to shake buildings in Tokyo some 500 kilometres (300 miles) to the south.
Near Kurihara in Miyagi prefecture, one of the worst-hit areas, a landslide swept away a section of highway, leaving a newly created cliff from which rocks and earth poured down.
"For a few seconds, the land roared. I couldn't figure out what was happening to me," said Mikiko Sugawara, 54, whose husband runs a hotel near Kurihara.
She said that her television fell on her, and that when she went to the hospital for medical attention, the equipment to treat her was broken.
"The town is now deadly quiet. Some people tried to clean up the debris, but they couldn't due to strong aftershocks," she said as nearly 100 aftershocks shook the region.
The government said that two people were killed and 65 were injured, while media reports put the number of people wounded above 100.
At least three construction workers were feared to be buried under rubble, Kurihara official Ryo Kurosawa said.
The injured included 17 passengers on a bus that plunged into a pond due to a landslide, public broadcaster NHK said. In Ohsu city, around five children were cut by shattered glass at a child-care centre.
A 55-year-old man died when he was out fishing and was apparently hit by a landslide.
The other, who was later identified as a 60-year-old man, "rushed out of the house when the quake hit but was run over by a truck," chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told an impromptu news conference in Tokyo.
More than 20,000 houses were out of power across northern Japan after the initial earthquake, which struck just 10 kilometres (six miles) underground.
Japan suspended service of its bullet trains to the north of the country as a precaution. Some 2,000 passengers stranded in three bullet trains and were asked to evacuate by foot, operator JR East said.
Telephone systems were jammed with calls and hundreds of people at train stations turned to sending text messages to check on loved ones.
The government deployed troops to help assist in relief efforts, while Shinya Izumi, the minister for disaster management, flew to the scene.
Japan endures some 20 percent of the world's powerful earthquakes and has built an infrastructure intended to withstand the impact of tremors.
Authorities blared messages from vans across the worst-affected towns warning them not to use their stoves, fearing fires in the event of more strong aftershocks.
Masanori Oikawa, a local official in Ohsu, said that people were responding calmly, even though they were in shock.
"The jolt was so strong that I couldn't stand without holding onto the wall," he said.
"We saw electric poles swinging and the walls of homes were damaged. We're used to earthquakes, but this was really scary," he said.
The Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi prefecture was working as normal, but its operator Tohoku Electric was checking if there was any damage, NHK said.
An earthquake last year in central Japan caused a small radioactive leak from the world's largest nuclear plant at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, heightening public concern. - AFP/ac
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