begin quote from:
Another Strong Earthquake Strikes Japan, Reportedly Killing Nine
| Wall Street Journal | - |
TOKYO—A
strong earthquake hit Japan's southern island of Kyushu early on
Saturday, in the same region that was struck 28 hours earlier,
reportedly causing at least three additional deaths.
- 68
Another Strong Earthquake Strikes Japan, Reportedly Killing Nine
Magnitude 7.3 tremblor hits southern region where a lesser quake also caused the death of nine people on Thursday
ENLARGE
A woman takes shelter after an earthquake hit Kumamoto, southern Japan, in the early hours of Saturday.
Photo:
Reuters
Public broadcaster NHK said another nine people were killed in Saturday’s quake and hundreds were seeking treatment for injuries. The quake caused significant shaking over a wider area of Kyushu than the previous one.
The Kumamoto airport was closed, and all flights were canceled owing to damage that included falling roof panels, a representative of airline operator ANA Holdings Inc. said.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said this latest earthquake struck at 1:25 a.m. local time in Kumamoto prefecture and had a magnitude of 7.3.
Related Reading
Further aftershocks continued through the morning.
Chief cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government’s top spokesman, told a news conference there were 23 reports of people buried alive. The government was preparing to increase the number of Self-Defense Forces members working at the scene to 20,000 from 2,000 within few days, Mr. Suga said. He also said the government received reports of a tunnel collapse.
Meanwhile, Kyushu Electric Power Co. said two nuclear power reactors in Kyushu continued to operate normally after the quake. It said 192,600 homes were without power on Saturday morning in Kumamoto and two neighboring prefectures.
The same area was hit by a magnitude 6.5 earthquake on Thursday night, killing at least nine people and injuring hundreds. That quake had a shaking reading of 7, and there were more than 100 aftershocks in Kumamoto. It was the first time such a measure was recorded in Japan since the March 11, 2011 earthquake in northern Japan.
ENLARGE
A map provided by the
U.S. Geological Survey shows the location of the 7.3 magnitude
earthquake, starred, that struck Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, in
the early hours of Saturday.
Photo:
European Pressphoto Agency
NHK showed images of a collapsed apartment building in the village of Minamiaso in Kumamoto prefecture, where residents were trapped inside.
Television footage showed hundreds of people gathering at parks in Kumamoto and huddling in blankets to avoid the cold. There was also footage of a landslide that had wiped out a bridge in a mountaino
