Major earthquake strikes Tohoku

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 jolted extensive areas of northeastern Japan on Saturday morning, killing at least three people and injuring more than 150 in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Akita and Yamagata prefectures.

In addition, at least 10 people are missing and hundreds of others stranded in rural mountain communities cut off by landslides, authorities said.

The 8:43 a.m. quake, which measured upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in parts of Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks.

The aftershock triggered landslides, scarred hills, tore up roads and destroyed bridges, leaving around 290 residents and tourists stranded in various areas while cutting off power to nearly 30,000 households, the authorities said.

The focus of the quake was about 8 km underground in southern Iwate Prefecture, the agency said. No tsunami warnings were issued.

The agency warned that aftershocks of up to lower 6 on the intensity scale could hit the region in coming days, causing secondary damage, such as landslides.

The Ground Self-Defense Force dispatched a disaster relief unit at the request of the Iwate and Miyagi prefectural governments, and 147 relief teams from Tokyo and 12 other prefectures were sent to quake-hit areas.

One of the dead was Tomozo Chiba, 60, who ran out of his house in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, in fear after the quake and was hit by a passing truck. Michitaka Ishii, 55, died after being buried in a landslide while fishing in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.

Masahiko Chiba, 48, also died after being hit by falling rocks at a dam construction site in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture.

Landslides occurred in various parts of Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, where an intensity of 6 was felt. A bridge in the city also collapsed, the Miyagi Prefectural Government said.

Seven people were trapped in soil and rubble at the Komanoyu hot spring resort in Kurihara, police said. The trapped people included two tourists and relatives of the owner.

Three other workers also went missing after a landslide struck a construction site in Kurihara, the authorities said.

A total of about 290 people were stranded at the Sukawa Onsen hot spring resort in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, and a tourism facility in Kurihara after roads were destroyed and buried by landslides. There was also information that 220 more tourists are stranded in areas near Mount Kurikoma.

About 20 passengers on a bus heading for Sendai airport were injured in Natori in the prefecture after the bus bounced from the quake, firefighters said.

A bus was hit by a landslide in the city of Oshu, with about 20 people temporarily trapped inside. Also in Oshu, seven children at a nursery school were injured by shards of glass after the quake shattered its windows, firefighters said.

The quake has not affected operations at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture or Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s reactors in Miyagi Prefecture.

Tepco said it had found that nearly 15 liters of wastewater containing radioactive substances spilled out of a pool inside the premises of its Fukushima No. 2 power plant but that the spill should not pose any danger to human health or the environment.

East Japan Railway Co. said it temporarily suspended bullet train services between Omiya and Hachinohe stations on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line after power supplies were cut to some parts of the line.

Sendai halted subway operations.

All expressways in Miyagi Prefecture were temporarily closed. An extensive crack was found at a section of the Yamagata Expressway near the Yamagata-Zao interchange.