Japan hit by powerful Earthquake, Rescuers Search Rubble for survivors
Officials ordered evacuations and said that some people could be trapped under collapsed buildings after a quake struck the western prefecture of Ishikawa.
A powerful earthquake hit western Japan on Monday, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuation orders in several prefectures, trapping people under collapsed buildings and disrupting electricity for tens of thousands in Ishikawa Prefecture, the epicenter of the quake, officials and Japan’s public broadcaster said.
The quake struck the Noto peninsula at around 4:10 p.m. and had a magnitude of 7.6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake measured 7.5 magnitude.
It was much weaker than the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan in 2011, caused a tsunami that killed thousands and triggered a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power plant.
The Japanese authorities were still gathering information about injuries. Patients had arrived at a hospital in Suzu City, which was operating on generator power because electricity was out, and one in Wajima City, where injured people were being treated in the hospital parking lot, the NHK public broadcaster reported.
The police were responding to calls from residents reporting collapsed buildings and people trapped beneath them.
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said that there were at least six cases of people trapped under rubble in Ishikawa, but he could not say how many people were involved or give details about their injuries.
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