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Home
» World News » Asia-Pacific

Strong earthquake jolts northwestern Japan

Tsunamis 20 inches tall hit some coastal regions

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BREAKING NEWS

Updated: 10:47 p.m. ET July 15, 2007

A strong earthquake jolted
northwestern Japan on Monday morning and caused buildings in the capital Tokyo
to sway. The Meteorological Agency said small tsunamis as high as 20 inches were
believed to have hit coasts in the area.

Three nuclear reactors in the
region automatically stopped, and an electrical fire was reported at one, public
broadcaster NHK said. Black smoke was seen billowing from the reactor as the
fire burned.

The quake had a magnitude of 6.7,
according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was centered off the coast of the
prefecture (state) of Niigata, the Meteorological Agency said in a
statement.

Story continues
below ↓

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The Meteorological Agency issued
tsunami warnings along the coasts of Niigata and warned of small tsunamis along
other coasts. But no significant damage was expected and the warnings were later
lifted.

Several bullet train services
linking Tokyo to northern Japan were suspended, NHK said.

Kyodo News reported three houses
collapsed in Kashiwazaki City in Niigata. Police were searching for anyone who
may have been trapped inside, the report said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was
in Nagasaki in southern Japan campaigning for the parliamentary elections later
this month, will return to Tokyo to deal with the quake, Kyodo said.

Niigata Airport, which had
suspended flights shortly after the quake, resumed services, Kyodo said.

Japan sits atop four tectonic
plates and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries. The last major
quake to hit the capital, Tokyo, killed some 142,000 people in 1923, and experts
say the capital has a 90 percent chance of suffering a major quake in the next
50 years.

In October 2004, a magnitude-6.8
earthquake hit Niigata, killing 40 people and damaging more than 6,000 homes. It
was the deadliest to hit Japan since 1995, when a magnitude-7.2 quake killed
6,433 people in the western city of Kobe.

This breaking news story will
be updated.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.

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