JAPAN: A powerful earthquake struck northern Japan yesterday, cutting off power to thousands of homes and forcing the authorities to shut down railways, highways and airports.
The earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale - Japan's strongest in two years - was centred off the coast of Sendai city. It rattled buildings about 190 miles away in Tokyo, trapping government workers in elevators in the city's metropolitan buildings.
The state broadcaster, NHK, reported at least 44 injuries, including two people seriously hurt by falling objects. Most of the casualties occurred around Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, close to the quake's epicentre.
Cities across the north of the country suffered ruptured water and gas mains and buckled roads. The bullet train to northern routes was suspended, and flights to and from Tokyo's main airport, Haneda, were temporarily grounded.
Panicked shoppers in Sendai ran into the street as the tremors struck at 6.24 p.m. local time. Many said the quake, which lasted for about two minutes, was strong enough to knock them off their feet.
In the immediate aftermath, fires broke out in a number of places, and nuclear power plants automatically shut down.
About 35,000 homes temporarily lost power supplies, but electricity was restored for most within a few hours.
The yen fell on European markets on news of the quake, which came after Tokyo markets closed.
Local authorities interviewed afterwards said the quake was extremely powerful, but expressed relief that its depth - about 40 miles below the Pacific Sea bed - meant there were relatively few serious injuries. A 1978 earthquake in the same area killed 28 people and injured 1,300, and there have been many similar disasters over the years.
Japan sits on a series of major fault lines and suffers thousands of earthquakes a year.
The 1995 Kobe quake, which was roughly the same magnitude as yesterday's, killed over 6,000 people and destroyed large parts of the city.
Many experts believe that a big earthquake is also long overdue in Tokyo, which has a history of tremors going back centuries.
