Japan earthquake: Powerful new tremor in Kumamoto
16 April 2016
By BBC News
A more powerful earthquake has rocked the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto in the middle of the night, a day after an earlier tremor killed nine people.
The magnitude-7.3 quake hit at a depth of 10km (six miles) at 01:25 on Saturday (15:25 GMT on Friday) in Kyushu region. At least three people died and hundreds were injured.
A village has been evacuated after a dam collapsed, media reports say.
A tsunami warning was issued, and lifted some 50 minutes later.
Japan is regularly hit by earthquakes but stringent building codes mean that they rarely cause significant damage.
This new earthquake in Kyushu was much bigger and hit a wider area than the one that struck Kumamoto on Thursday night, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo.
In one town near the coast, the city hall has been so badly damaged there are fears it could collapse. A hospital has been evacuated because it is no longer safe.
Thousands of people have fled on to the streets and into parks - where they are huddled under blankets looking dazed and afraid, our correspondent says.
But there are numerous reports of people trapped inside buildings, including at least 60 inside an old people's home.
Public broadcaster NHK says the dam collapsed in the Nishihara village.
elevision pictures showed thousands of people filling streets and parks, looking dazed across the region.
NHK had warned of sea waves of up to 1m (3ft).
Japan's nuclear authority said the Sendai nuclear plant was not damaged.
The quake was originally assessed as magnitude 7.1 but revised upwards to 7.3 later.
Gavin Hayes, a research geophysicist with the US Geological Survey (USGS) in Colorado, told the BBC that the latest earthquake would hamper the earlier rescue operation that was already under way.
He said more damage could be expected as the earthquake had been shallower and the fault-line had been much longer.
"The ground surface would have moved in the region of 4-5m. So, you are talking very intense shaking over quite a large area. And that's why we'll probably see a significant impact from this event."
The Associated Press news agency said guests at the Ark Hotel near the Kumamoto Castle, which was damaged, woke up and gathered in the lobby for safety.
Structure of the Lead：
WHAT- A more powerful earthquake has rocked
WHEN- in the middle of the night, a day after an earlier tremor killed nine people
WHY- not given
WHERE- the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto
WHO- not given
HOW- not given
Keywords:
1.magnitude:震度
2. evacuated:疏散.撤離
3.fled on:逃跑
4.huddled:混亂.擁擠
5.correspondent:記者.特派員
WHERE- the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto
WHO- not given
HOW- not given
Keywords:
1.magnitude:震度
2. evacuated:疏散.撤離
3.fled on:逃跑
4.huddled:混亂.擁擠
5.correspondent:記者.特派員
I was really shocked by seeing this sorrowful news. Without no doubt, Japanese must be very sad, especially people who lived in the disaster areas. We Taiwanese prayed for them with humanity so that the victims' mind could be comforted. There were also many countries did the same thing like us even made a donation for Japan. This earthquake hurt Japan a lot, I hope this message can help them get rid of their sadness.
回覆刪除作者已經移除這則留言。
回覆刪除Thousands of people have fled on to the streets and into parks - where they are huddled under blankets looking dazed and afraid, our correspondent says.And there are numerous reports of people trapped inside buildings, including at least 60 inside an old people's home.I feel so sad about this sorrowful news. There were also many countries did the many things even made a donation for Japan.I hope Japanese can come back to their normal life.
回覆刪除