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Quake aftershocks rattle Japan
26/03/2007 07:21 - (SA)
Wajima, Japan - Strong aftershocks rattled residents on Japan's main island on Monday as they cleared debris and sought to return to normal a day after a powerful earthquake killed at least one person and injured nearly 200 others.
Troops, firefighters and police searched for possible missing people and worked to restore key services such as the water supply, which remained cut off.
More than 2 600 people spent a restless night in emergency shelters after hundreds of buildings were damaged in Wajima, the northern tip of the Noto peninsula on the west coast of Japan's main island of Honshu.
Just after dawn, a 5.3-magnitude quake jolted the area, one of the strongest of nearly 200 aftershocks since the initial 6.9-magnitude tremor early on Sunday, according to the meteorological agency.
"I couldn't sleep well last night as I woke up with fear every time an aftershock occurred," said Chiezo Seto, a 56-year-old rice cracker maker, looking at the fallen walls of his house.
"My wife and I just finished cleaning up the shattered glass inside my house and now I'm working on fixing my factory," Seto said. "I'm afraid it will take some time to get back to normal."
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to assist the victims of the latest earthquake in Japan, one of the world's most tremor-prone countries.
"I will do my utmost to support the victims of the quake and to reconstruct the damaged region," Abe told a parliamentary committee.
Quake-prone
Japan is one of the most quake-prone nations in the world, with its cities constantly living in fear of "The Big One".
It lies at the junction of four tectonic plates and endures about 20% of the world's most powerful earthquakes, which frequently jolt Tokyo and other major cities.
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake in the western city of Kobe in January 1995 killed 6 437 people, while 67 people were killed and hundreds injured in 2004 in a 6.8-magnitude quake in the Niigata region, northwest of Tokyo.
Japan sets strict standards for buildings to be earthquake-resistant, helping keep casualties low despite the widespread damage from the latest tremor.
- AFP
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