A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.7 on Hokkaido caused landslides that engulfed houses early on Thursday, injuring and trapping a number of people and cutting power in several areas.
According to a report on JapanTimes, A landslide along a long ridge in the rural town of Atsuma could be seen in aerial footage from NHK. Some 10 people had been taken to hospitals with injuries, one of them serious, it said.
Reports said up to 48 people were hurt and 32 missing.
There were widespread power outages and blocked roads, NHK said, but no early reports of deaths. A man suffered cardiac arrest after falling down the stairs, local media reported.
The quake, which struck at 3:08 a.m., posed no tsunami risk, the Meteorological Agency said. The U.S. Geological Survey said it struck some 68 km (42 miles) southeast of Sapporo, Hokkaido’s main city.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, arriving at his office before 6 a.m., told reporters his government had set up a command center to coordinate relief and rescue. His voice sounding haggard, Abe said saving lives was his government’s priority.
The Tomari Nuclear Power Station suffered a power outage but was cooling its fuel rods safely with emergency power, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Operator Hokkaido Electric Power Co reported no radiation irregularities at the plant, which has been shut since shortly after a massive 2011 earthquake, Suga told a news conference.
A fire broke out at a Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. Co. plant in the city of Nemuro but has largely been brought under control, NHK said, quoting local officials.
There was also a fire at an oil refinery facility in Muroran, but it has almost been subdued.
A series of smaller shocks followed the initial temblor, the Meteorological Agency said. Agency official Toshiyuki Matsumori, at a early morning news conference, warned residents to take precautions for potential major aftershocks in coming days.
Shinkansen trains were halted in some areas of Hokkaido, and New Chitose airport flights were scrubbed.
NHK Footage showed a crumbled brick wall and broken glass in a home, and quoted local police as saying some people were trapped in collapsed structures.
Rescuers were shown looking for damage on a rural road that was blocked by fallen trees.
Thursday’s quake caused the loss of power at nearly all of 3 million households and a nuclear power plant to go on a backup generator.
The quake’s epicenter was east of the city of Tomakomai. It also struck Sapporo, with a population of 1.9 million.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said a man was found without vital signs in Tomakomai, and several people were reported missing in the nearby town of Atsuma. At least 20 other people were injured in nearby towns, though their conditions were not immediately known.
Footage on NHK national television showed the moment the quake struck Muroran, with its camera violently shaking and all city lights going out a moment later. In nearby Sapporo, a mudslide hit a road, leaving several cars half buried.
In the town of Atsuma, a massive landslide occurred on the side of a mountain, crushing houses at lower levels.
Suga told a news conference that the authorities have received hundreds of calls about people missing and buildings collapsing. Officials are doing their utmost for the search and rescue while they assess the extent of damage, he said.
The temblor, which occurred in southern Hokkaido at a depth of about 40 km, logged upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale to 7 in the town of Abira and lower 6 in the city of Chitose, both southeast of Sapporo.
The Meteorological Agency said temblors on the Japanese scale to 6 can be expected for the next week.