At least 9 dead, 300 injured as powerful quake jolts northern Japan

TOKYO. KAZINFORM At least nine people died and about 300 people were injured after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 rocked Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido early Thursday, destroying houses, cutting off roads and causing massive multiple landslides that buried parts of towns and left many mountains nearly bare.

The 3:08 a.m. quake also cut power supplies to all 2.95 million homes and a nuclear power plant in the prefecture while grounding flights and disrupting train services, authorities and other sources said. Power later returned in some areas, KYODO NEWS reports.

About 30 people were missing and some 1,900 people were taking shelter at evacuation centers set up at more than 400 locations, according to police, rescuers and local authorities.
The government said the Self-Defense Forces are dispatching 25,000 personnel for relief operations.

The temblor, which occurred in southern Hokkaido at a depth of about 37 kilometers, registered the highest reading of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in Atsuma and upper 6 in Abira, both southeast of Sapporo. No tsunami warning was issued.

Smaller aftershocks continued and the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that earthquakes with a similar intensity could continue in the area for about a week.

Details also at