Powerful earthquake rocks southern Japan – Video

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Powerful earthquake rocks southern Japan – Video

12:02 CAT | 15 Apr 2016

Reuters / Reports say people may be trapped in fallen buildings after the 6.4 magnitude earthquake

At least two people were killed and 45 injured by a magnitude-6.5 earthquake that knocked down houses and buckled roads in southern Japan on Thursday.

Both victims are from the hardest-hit town of Mashiki, about 15km east of Kumamoto city on the island of Kyushu, said Kumamoto prefecture disaster management official Takayuki Matsushita.

Earlier, Japanese Red Cross Kumamoto Hospital said it had admitted or treated 45 people, including five with serious injuries.

“The shaking was so violent I couldn’t stand still,” said Hironobu Kosaki, a Kumamoto prefectural police official.

One of the victims in Mashiki died after being pulled from some rubble, and the other was killed in a fire, Matsushita said. A third person rescued from under a collapsed building was in a state of heart and lung failure.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake hit at 9:36 pm (12:36 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometres. No tsunami warning was issued.

The quake measured the highest of 7 on Japan’s intensity scale in Mashiki town, 900km southwest of Tokyo, the meteorological agency said.

“We intend to do the utmost to grasp the situation,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at least 19 houses collapsed, and hundreds of calls came in reporting building damage and people buried under debris or trapped inside.

“Because of the night darkness, the extent of damage is still unclear,” he said.

Television footage showed fires breaking out in some places, with firefighters battling an orange blaze.

The damage and calls for help are concentrated in the town of Mashiki, about 1,300km southwest of Tokyo, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

At least one aftershock struck the region.

Kyushu Electric Power said there was no impact of the quake on two nuclear reactors at the Sendai Nuclear Power Station in Kagoshima prefecture, according to broadcaster NHK.

The plant is 130km south of Kumamoto city. The operator restarted the reactors last year, the first two units under updated regulations.

The quake prompted the suspension of train services in the region, according to NHK.

In March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake sparked a devastating tsunami that killed 18,000 people along Japan’s northeast coast.

The massive wave struck the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing a major radiation leakage.

More than 100,000 displaced people are still unable to return to their homes near the nuclear plant because of the contamination.