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.