The school attended by a 9-year-old girl who died after a powerful earthquake in Osaka this week reopened Thursday, as grief and anxieties persist among students and local residents.

"I am really saddened," Yoshimi Tanaka, principal of the school in the city of Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, said in an assembly with students. "I cannot forget her -- she was always surrounded by friends and looked happy."

Some students shed tears during the meeting at Juei Elementary School where Rina Miyake used to study, according to city officials.

The school needed more time for safety checks before classes resumed, unlike most elementary schools in the city, which had reopened on Wednesday.

"We can't rule out the possibility of human error (that led to the girl's death)," Takatsuki Mayor Takeshi Hamada said after placing flowers in front of the city-run school early in the morning. "I feel sorry for the victim."

Students had to return home by lunchtime as the school cannot provide meals because there is still no gas supply in the area.

(The mayor of Takatsuki puts his hands together in prayer at Juei Elementary School.)

The fourth-grader at the school was crushed to death under a concrete wall that collapsed as she was on her way to school after the magnitude 6.1 quake rocked the northern part of the prefecture.

Local police are looking at her death as a possible case of professional negligence as concrete blocks around the school's swimming pool were piled higher than legal standards with insufficient reinforcement.

On Thursday, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry dispatched a special team and inspected concrete-block walls at elementary and middle schools in Takatsuki for possible cracks, tilting and other damage.

The ministry also urged owners of such walls nationwide to check their safety, while the Osaka prefectural government decided to inspect all concrete walls made of blocks on routes taken by students going to local public schools.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in the prefecture in the morning and visited the site where the wall collapsed as well as other locations hit hard by the quake.

"I want to ensure school safety by carrying out emergency inspections across the country," Abe told reporters. "We must prevent a recurrence of this kind of tragedy."

Abe also said the government will provide financial aid to local authorities in advance so they can make recovery efforts without worrying about finances.

Local authorities said they have received reports of 417 buildings at public kindergartens, and elementary, junior high and high schools being damaged.

The reports included cracks in exterior walls and a lamp that fell from the ceiling of a gymnasium, they said.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 2,352 homes have been damaged in the quake in Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Nara prefectures.

Of 1,444 public elementary and junior high schools in Osaka Prefecture, 160 schools were closed on Wednesday.

The quake hit Osaka and surrounding areas on Monday, killing at least five and injuring more than 400 people. About 1,100 people were taking shelter at evacuation centers as of Thursday morning and nearly 800 homes have been damaged, according to local authorities.

The quake was the biggest in the Kansai region since a magnitude 7.3 temblor devastated Kobe in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture and its vicinity in 1995, killing more than 6,000 people.