A magnitude-6.8 earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture in northwestern Japan on Saturday evening, setting off hundreds of aftershocks that toppled buildings, severed roads and cut power to 173,000 homes. At least 17 people were killed or reported missing, with several hundred others injured.
Some 68,000 residents abandoned their homes and crowded into public shelters overnight. The Defense Agency dispatched 230 personnel by road and helicopter to reach isolated communities; a military CH-47 ferried roughly 50 displaced residents and four injured people to a nearby school and hospital.
A high-speed Shinkansen train derailed near the epicenter. None of the roughly 150 passengers aboard was hurt, operator JR East Japan confirmed.
The Japanese Red Cross deployed 27 workers to hospitals and shelters, with most of the 170 injured patients treated at Nagaoka Red Cross Hospital. "Most suffered bruises, broken bones, and cuts," said spokeswoman Kaori Nakagawa. The organization planned to distribute three tons of emergency supplies from a school in the town of Ojiya, about 200 kilometers northwest of Tokyo.
Officials said the quake was Japan's deadliest since the 1995 Kobe disaster, which killed more than 6,400 people. The tremors came after a punishing typhoon season: Typhoon Tokage had struck days earlier, killing 79 people.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.