Houses buried, dozens missing as 6.7 quake jolts Hokkaido
authorities said.
An earthquake
with a preliminary magnitude of 6.7
rocked Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido
early Thursday
cutting
power supplies
disrupting public transportation
causing mudslides that buried houses
according to the prefectural government and firefighters.
A number of houses
were buried in the towns of Atsuma and Abira
following the 3:08am
1.08am Thailand time
quake after mountain slopes collapsed
In Atsuma
two people were confirmed killed by the quake
39 people were missing.
by the quake
police said.
An 82-year-old man was found to be showing no signs of life after falling down the stairs in his residence in Tomakomai but later recovered
The Nuclear Regulation Authority
said
Hokkaido Electric Power Co's Tomari nuclearpower plant lost an external power source, with a spent fuel pool at its Nos 1 to 3 reactors currently being cooled by an emergency power supply system.
regulators said
No abnormality has been confirmed in radiation levels around the plant
Meanwhile, Tohoku Electric Power Co said
no abnormalities were detected at the Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture.
Around 3 million
houses were left without power in Hokkaido
after the earthquake caused
thermal power plants in the prefecture to shut down.
The blackout affected telephone service and television broadcasting in Sapporo.
A fire broke out at a petrochemical complex
in Muroran
was later extinguished by firefighters.
The temblor
which occurred in southern Hokkaido at a depth of about 37 kilometres
logged upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in the town of Abira and lower 6 in the city of Chitose, both southeast of Sapporo. It was followed by smaller aftershocks. No tsunami warning was issued.
It was the first time for a quake in Hokkaido
to reach an intensity of upper 6 since the seismic scale was revised in 1996.
an 87-year-old man in Atsuma said.
“It messed up my entire house. I've never experienced an earthquake like this,"
the transport ministry said
New Chitose Airport will be closed throughout the day after part of its ceilingcollapsed as well as due to the power outage
affecting flights from Tokyo and other cities.
operators said.
Bullet train and local train services were also disrupted by the quake
In Tokyo
the central government said
the Self-Defence Forces will dispatch 25,000 personnel for relief operations at the request of the governor of Hokkaido.