M6.5 Quake Hits Southwestern Japan, 4 Dead

KUMAMOTO, JAPAN – APR. 15: A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.5 jolted southwestern Japan on Thursday night, killing at least four people and resulting in injuries, collapsed houses and fires in Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Kyushu.The quake at 9:26 p.m. registered a maximum 7 on the Japanese seismic scale in the town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. No tsunami warning was issued and no abnormalities have been detected at nuclear power plants in the area.Local authorities said four people have been confirmed dead in Kumamoto City. There were others who had lost consciousness or showed no vital signs.As of 2 a.m., a total of some 23,000 people were taking shelter at about 350 sites in the prefecture. Eight people were reported to be missing.According to police and firefighters, around 20 houses collapsed in and around Mashiki, trapping people in buildings and under the debris. Fires had also broken out there. An eight-month-old baby girl was rescued without injuries from a collapsed house early Friday morning.About 400 people were being treated for injuries at five hospitals in Kumamoto City, hospital officials said. And one person was reported injured in each of the neighboring prefectures of Saga and Miyazaki, police there said.The temblor, upgraded by the meteorological agency from a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, originated at a depth of around 11 kilometers in Kumamoto Prefecture. Another measuring magnitude 5.7 occurred shortly after 10 p.m.Bullet train operations on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line were temporarily suspended within Kyushu following the quake.According to Kyushu Railway Co., passengers were stranded aboard one bullet train that had made an emergency stop between stations, and evacuation of the passengers was being delayed by the aftershocks.Traffic had stopped on some expressways in Kumamoto and Miyazaki prefectures, including parts of the Kyushu Expressway.