An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 rocked a wide area on the Sea of Japan coast in central Japan on Friday, leaving one person dead and more than 20 injured, authorities said. No tsunami warning was issued.
The quake occurred at 2:42 p.m., registering an upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, about 110 kilometers northeast of the popular tourism spot of Kanazawa.
Some buildings collapsed in Suzu at the tip of the Noto Peninsula while traffic and events were disrupted during the nation's Golden Week holidays. The quake originated at a depth of 12 km, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
It was the largest among a series of quakes that have been hitting the Noto area since December 2020. A change of around 10 centimeters was detected in the sea levels in Ishikawa Prefecture, the agency said.
No abnormalities have been detected at the Shika nuclear power plant, some 60 km from Suzu, or the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in nearby Niigata Prefecture, according to the operators.
A 65-year-old man fell from a ladder in Suzu and was later confirmed dead, according to local authorities. The city said that over 20 people have been injured.
Nearly 40 aftershocks had hit the area by 11 p.m., including a M5.8 temblor at around 10 p.m.
A man in his 30s said earlier in the day that his two-story house in Suzu was partially destroyed, although no one inside was injured. He said he was sorting through valuables as he can no longer live in the house.
At a Shinto shrine in the city, a torii gate fell down after the jolting. "I was scared," said Yoshimichi Hata, the 71-year-old chief of Suzu Hachimangu.
Some parts of the shrine had been damaged in an earthquake last year. "We've just finished repairing them," he said.
Three bullet trains of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line made emergency stops due to a temporary electrical outage between Nagano and Kanazawa while a total of four runs were suspended after the quake, according to JR West and JR East.
Long lines were seen at JR Kanazawa Station due to the cancellation of train services, and some tourist spots were affected amid the Golden Week holidays that have created a travel frenzy on the back of easing coronavirus restrictions.
Shinichi Kagiya, 58, a resident of Yokohama, near Tokyo, who was waiting for a bullet train with his wife, said, "I felt the quake even when I was on a bus. I didn't expect the final day of my retirement trip to become like this."
At Omicho market, a popular tourist attraction in Kanazawa, quake warnings went off simultaneously on visitors' smartphones, with a woman working at one of the stores recalling that "the shaking lasted several minutes."
A dance event at Kanazawa Castle Park was suspended for about 30 minutes as a precaution. An organizer said that participants and visitors remained calm.
Two elevators in the 300-meter Abeno Harukas skyscraper in Osaka, western Japan, stopped automatically after detecting seismic activity, stranding visitors on the observation decks of the 58th to 60th floors for around an hour.
All visitors were eventually able to descend safely, with no injuries reported, according to staff.
The weather agency initially reported that the earthquake was M6.3 and the focus was at a depth of 10 km.
The agency warned of the possibility of quakes around the upper 6 level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale for about a week in the area.
The agency defines upper 6 and 7 as "impossible to remain standing or move without crawling" and "people may be thrown through the air."
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, while returning to Japan from Singapore aboard a government plane, instructed his government to work with affected prefectures on rescuing disaster victims.
