Kinky EnglishコミュのM6.8 quake in Niigata

M6.8 quake jolts Niigata, 4 die, over 260 hurt.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 rocked the Niigata Prefecture's area on Monday morning, killing 4 persons and injuring more than 260 people, flattening houses and leading to an emergency halt of nuclear reactors, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The 10:13 a.m. quake disrupted public transportation, caused power failures in more than 20,000 homes in the area, toppled electric poles and ruptured gas pipes as aftershocks continued in the area.

Of over 260 people injured in Niigata and Nagano prefectures, more than 100 were taken to hospital in Kashiwazaki, about 200 kilometers northwest of Tokyo.

An electric transformer caught fire at the No. 3 reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, but the fire was extinguished, the utility company said. No radioactive leakage has been detected so far.

The quake measured upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in Niigata and Iizuna in Nagano, lower 6 in Joetsu in Niigata, and upper 5 in Iiyama in Nagano.

Niigata Prefecture was already hit by a magnitude 6.8 quake on Oct. 23, 2004, by which 67 people were killed and more than 4,800 injured.

(information from japantoday.com)