One dead, 150 hurt in Japan quake

TOKYO: A powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan on Sunday, killing one person and injuring almost 150 others as homes were reduced to rubble and parts of roads destroyed, officials said.

Hundreds of buildings were damaged and residents took cover in emergency shelters as aftershocks rattled the Noto peninsula on the western coast of Japan's main island of Honshu after the big hit at about 9.42 am (0042 GMT).

Japan's meteorological agency initially estimated the magnitude of the quake at 7.1 but later revised their figures.

The agency issued a tsunami warning for the Noto peninsula but lifted the alert after about two hours, as only small waves hit the shore.

The tremor triggered landslides and a thermal power plant halted operations automatically but nuclear power plants in the area reported no problems.

One woman, 52-year-old Kiyomi Miyakoshi, died after being hit by a stone lantern in a garden. At least 149 people were hurt, according to the local police and fire departments.

More than 200 buildings were damaged and 25 were completely destroyed in the city of Wajima, one of the most heavily damaged areas, while hundreds more were left without electricity in the region, local officials said.

"The tremors were really terrible," said city official Masahiro Onishi.

"Lots of people are moving to shelters now but we don't see any panic in my region. We still feel aftershocks but people are acting orderly."

The meteorological agency said as many as 78 tremors strong enough to be felt by local residents were detected in the area within about four hours after the strong quake.

Some roads to the area were blocked by landslides triggered by the huge quake, the police department said, while television pictures showed sectors of roads destroyed.

The quake's epicentre was located under the sea bed about 300 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of the capital Tokyo, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rushed to his office to monitor relief efforts.

"I ordered respective government departments to obtain information about damage and to do their best to assure the safety of local residents," Abe told reporters.

The government, which has set up a special earthquake information office, was to dispatch a team of inspectors to assess damage in the area, top government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a press conference.

Japan's defence ministry dispatched disaster relief troops to the area while police sent a team of 400 rescuers.

"We don't know what the situation is like there yet, but the officers will conduct relief and rescue operations," said a police spokesman.

Among the injured were two elderly men aged 76 and 73 who were buried under a pile of fertiliser which collapsed, a Nanao city police officer said.

One was reported to have fractures of his skull and both legs while the other suffered facial injuries.

The Japan Coast Guard said one of its patrol ships found four people adrift holding onto a capsized boat off Toyama prefecture, which is adjacent to the Noto peninsula.

Japan lies at the junction of four tectonic plates and endures about 20 per cent of the world's most powerful earthquakes, which frequently jolt Tokyo and other major cities.

The country prides itself on having one of the world's most accurate systems for assessing earthquakes and predicting tsunamis.

Two large earthquakes also struck Sunday off the coast of the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu just before the Japan quake, but local authorities said they were unlikely to lead to any casualties.