Powerful Earthquake Jolts Central Japan
Posted April 15, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In the early afternoon hours Sunday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 hit central Japan , injuring at least five people while damaging houses and a 400-year-old castle.
The good news is officials reported no danger of a tsunami.
The quake struck at 12:19pm and was centred in Mie, about 320 kilometres southwest of Tokyo .
Injury reports have been fairly minor thus far, though a 59-year-old woman and 60-year-old man suffered head and shoulder injuries when part of a restaurant ceiling fell on them.
A few other minor injuries have been reported, but there were no fatalities.
The most significant damage came when the quake caused part of a stone wall to collapse at the more than 400-year-old Kameyama Castle .
Several houses had similar structural damage and there were brief blackouts in certain regions. Residents were warned of small aftershocks that could occur over the next few days.
Local train service was briefly suspended and safety checks were performed on roads before they were reopened.
Experts say Sunday’s temblor wasn’t related to two others that struck off the Japanese coast Saturday.
In March, a magnitude-6.9 quake in northwestern Japan killed one person and injured more than 200 others.
In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake killed 6,433 people in the city of Kobe .
Japan rests on four tectonic plates, making it one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world.
File Photo Used
