MASHIKI (Japan) : A more powerful quake hit southern Japan early today, killing at least seven people, toppling large buildings and triggering a massive landslide just over a day after an earlier tremor which left nine dead.
The quake on the southwestern island of Kyushu sparked a fresh wave of destruction and was followed by a wave of aftershocks in the region where nerves are already frayed following Thursday’s deadly earthquake.
The powerful shaking set off a huge landslide that swept away homes and cut off a highway in one area, and unlike the earlier quake which mostly affected old houses, larger buildings were damaged and some toppled across Kumamoto prefecture, the epicentre of the quakes.
Separately, an active volcano in the area erupted today morning, a local government official said, cautioning, however, it was unclear if the small-scale event was linked to the quakes.
Takayuki Matsushita, an official with Kumamoto prefecture, said seven were confirmed dead, citing police and fire departments.
Public broadcaster NHK, meanwhile, put the death toll at nine and said there were at least 760 people injured, while a government spokesperson said scores were trapped or buried alive.
Eleven people were stuck in a damaged apartment building in Minami-Aso near the landslide, another Kumamoto prefecture official said.
“We don’t know their condition,” he said, declining to be named.
Meanwhile, a large fire that broke out at an apartment complex in Yatsushiro city killed one person, city official Kiichiro Terada confirmed.
“We are also checking if any more people failed to escape,” he said, adding that the fire was under control.
In nearby Kumamoto city, authorities were evacuating patients from a hospital over fears it could collapse and images showed the building slanted.
Hisako Ogata, 61, evacuated to a nearby park with her daughter, where some 50 other people sat on blue plastic sheets.
“We left my house as we could not stay due to continuous jolts,” Ogata told AFP.
“It was so scary,” she added. “Thank God we are still alive.”
An AFP journalist in the city at the time said he was jolted awake by powerful shaking, which sent the television set in his hotel room crashing to the floor. Staff urged guests to evacuate. (AGENCIES)
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