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| Japan earthquake: 6.6 magnitude quake hits Japan | Japan earthquake: 6.6 magnitude quake hits Japan |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A powerful earthquake with a suspected magnitude of 6.6 has shaken western Japan, | |
| The Meteorological Agency said the earthquake occurred Friday at 2:10 p.m. (0510 GMT) in Japan's western prefecture of Tottori, about 700 kilometers (430 miles) west of Tokyo, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) underground. | The Meteorological Agency said the earthquake occurred Friday at 2:10 p.m. (0510 GMT) in Japan's western prefecture of Tottori, about 700 kilometers (430 miles) west of Tokyo, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles) underground. |
| The agency said there was no danger of a tsunami from the inland temblor. | The agency said there was no danger of a tsunami from the inland temblor. |
| Local officials told public broadcaster NHK that they had received reports of a house collapsing in the town of Yurihama and that fires had broke out in another part of the prefecture. | |
| The fire department in Kurayoshi City reported receiving seven emergency calls for injuries and NHK showed images of severe shaking in the region. | |
| Suminori Sakinada, a local government official, told Agence France Presse: "We felt fairly strong jolts, which I think were the biggest in years, but we have not seen any damage or things falling". | |
| Bullet train services have been suspended in the area and nearly 40,000 homes are believed to be left without power as the quake knocked out power lines. | |
| NHK said switched-off nuclear reactors in the region were not affected. | |
| Japan sits on the edge of four tectonic plates so earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are fairly commonplace but strict building regulations mean strong tremors rarely do damage to modern buildings. | |
| But the quake comes five and a half years since a 9.0 undersea earthquake cause a tsunami, a meltdown at the Fukashima power plant and resulted in the deaths of over 18,000 people. | |
| The then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the crisis the country "most difficult in the 65 years since the end of the Second World War". | |
| Similarly a 1995 earthquake which struck Kobe in the south of the country killed over 6,000 people and made a further 200,000 homeless as many older buildings were destroyed and a freeway toppled over. |