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Friday, 05 September 2008

Japan earthquake kills four

14/06/2008 5:53:04 PM.  | 

Four people were killed on Saturday in a powerful earthquake in northern Japan, officials said.

Rescue teams scouring by helicopter found a body in the mountains, said Yuichi Hachiya, a fire department official in the hard-hit town of Kurihara, taking the overall death toll to four.

"We suspect the person was a visitor, but that's just speculation. The person has yet to be identified as the body is now being transferred," an official told AFP.

The other dead included a 48-year-old construction worker on a dam project who was hit by falling rocks and a 55-year-old man buried by a landslide while out fishing, officials said earlier.

A 60-year-old man also died after running out of his home in fright and being hit by a truck.

More than 100 people were injured and 14 people went missing in the 7.2 Richter-scale tremor, according to officials and media tallies.

The powerful earthquake also trapped guests at a hot-spring resort buried by a landslide.

The earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, also caused a leak of radioactive water from a power plant, although the company said that the amount was so small that there was no cause for public concern.

The quake rattled a largely agricultural region in northern Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. It was strong enough to shake buildings in Tokyo 500km to the south and was followed by around 100 aftershocks.

Near Kurihara, one of the worst-hit towns, a landslide destroyed a forest hot-spring resort, which was reduced to a pile of wooden rubble.

Five people were rescued, two with broken bones, but several remained missing, police said.

"For a few seconds, the land roared. I couldn't figure out what was happening to me," said Mikiko Sugawara, 54, whose husband runs another hotel near Kurihara.

Kyoichi Suzuki, a 50-year-old beekeeper, said he was just 100 metres away from a landslide that buried a car.

"I escaped by a hairsbreadth," he said with relief afterwards. "If I had been in that car, I would have been killed."

The toll could rise further as at least three construction workers were feared to be buried under rubble, Kurihara official Ryo Kurosawa said.

Japan endures some 20 per cent of the world's powerful earthquakes and has built an infrastructure intended to withstand the impact of tremors.

The government deployed the military to help assist in relief efforts, while Shinya Izumi, the minister for disaster management, flew to the scene.

"The top priority is to save lives. We are doing our best in rescue operations," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters.

The injured included 17 passengers on a bus that plunged into a pond due to a landslide, public broadcaster NHK said. In Ohsu city, around five children were cut by shattered glass at a child-care centre.

More than 20,000 houses were without power across northern Japan after the initial earthquake, which struck just 8km underground.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said that 14.8 litres of water came out of a pool in which radioactive equipment is stored at a reactor in Fukushima prefecture, but the company said there were no risks to the public.

Masanori Oikawa, a local official in Oshu, said that people were responding calmly, even though they were in shock.

"The jolt was so strong that I couldn't stand without holding onto the wall," he said.

"We saw electric poles swinging and the walls of homes were damaged. We're used to earthquakes but this was really scary," he said.

Japan suspended service of its bullet trains to the north of the country as a precaution, forcing some 2,000 passengers to evacuate stopped trains by foot.

COMMENTS

Sunday, 15 June 2008

This is HAARP at work!!! , if u dont know what it is, check GOOGLE or YOUTUBE. we are controlling the weather! HAARP- is our Weapon of Mass Destruction.. stay informed peace to the world

Posted by: HAARP MR, HAARP

 
 

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