Temple collapse after Japan hit by earthquake
RESIDENTS in north-eastern Japan cleaned up clutter and debris in stores and homes on Sunday after a strong earthquake set off a landslide on a highway, damaged some buildings and parts of bullet train lines and caused power blackouts for thousands of people.
The 7.3 magnitude tremor late on
Saturday shook the quake-prone areas of Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures that 10 years ago had been hit by a powerful earthquake that triggered a tsunami and a meltdown at a nuclear power plant.
More than 120 people suffered mostly minor injures, most of them from falling objects and cuts while stepping on broken glass. Three people were confirmed with serious injures but there were no reports of deaths.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, the utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant that was hit by the March 2011 disaster, said the water used to cool spent fuel rods near the reactors had spilled because of the shaking. But there were no radiation leaks or other irregularities, TEPCO said.
The quake did not cause a tsunami because the epicenter was deep at 34 miles beneath the ocean. In the northern Fukushima city of Soma, a roof at a Buddhist temple collapsed.