Tremors injure six in Japan

2004-11-08 13:32

Tokyo - A series of powerful tremors Monday rattled the central Japanese province reeling from last month's earthquake, injuring six people just as classes were resuming from the tragedy, officials said.

Four tremors, with the strongest measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale and felt in Tokyo, struck within an hour starting at 11:16 in Niigata prefecture, the Meteorological Agency said.

Five children and a woman were hurt when the walls of their building collapsed, but their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, a spokesperson for the Niigata fire department said.

The tremors struck just as 37 schools became the last to resume lessons after the October 23 earthquake in Niigata.

"I was walking outside and I saw electric polls shaking," a woman in Niigata told the national broadcaster NHK.

The bullet train to Niigata, 200km northwest of Tokyo, was halted as a precaution.

A bullet train was derailed for the first time by the initial tremor last month of 6.8 on the Richter scale which was followed by hundreds of aftershocks.

Thirty-nine people have died and 2 600 others injured from the initial tremor and its aftermath in Japan's deadliest earthquake in nine years.

- AFP