The earthquake hit the Japanese city just before 8am on Monday, killing three people, including a nine-year-old girl.
Three people have died and more than 200 others were injured after a powerful earthquake shook the Japanese coastal city of Osaka and nearby areas during the morning rush hour on Monday.
The victims were named as Rina Miyake, a 9-year-old girl, and Minoru Yasui, an 80-year-old man, who died when they were hit by collapsing walls after the magnitude-6.1 quake struck just before 8am local time, media said. A second man, Motochika Goto, 85, was crushed by a falling bookcase at his home.
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The quake, which did not trigger a tsunami, left more than 170,000 households without power in Osaka prefecture and neighbouring Hyogo prefecture, where an earthquake killed more than 6,400 people in the city of Kobe in January 1995.
Monday’s earthquake was of a relatively low magnitude but caused violent shaking due to its shallow depth of 13km. It registered up to a lower-6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 0 to 7. Quakes of a lower-6 intensity make it hard for people to stay on their feet and can topple unsecured furniture and other items.
Officials warned of possible strong aftershocks. “There are fears that the risk of house collapses and landslides has increased in the areas shaken strongly,” said Toshiyuki Matsumori of the country’s meteorological agency. “Please make sure that you are fully on alert about seismic activities and information on rainfall, and stay clear of dangerous places.”
Experts said the earthquake could have involved a fault that has not moved for more than 10,000 years.
“We may have to consider the possibility of even greater earthquakes following, as happened in the quakes in Kumamoto,” Kyodo news quoted Shinji Toda, an earthquake geology professor at Tohoku University, as saying.
Dozens of people were killed in Kumamoto in south-western Japan in April 2016 after two powerful earthquakes struck within two days of each other.
TV coverage of the immediate aftermath of the Osaka quake showed ruptured underground pipes spewing water on to the street, while firefighters were seen tackling a blaze at a home on the city’s northern outskirts. A number of other fires were reported.
Kansai Electric Power said no irregularities had been detected at three nuclear plants in the region. Several rail services were suspended, including the bullet train. Television images showed passengers getting off trains and walking along the tracks between stations.
The car manufacturer Daihatsu said it had suspended operations at its plants in Osaka and nearby Kyoto, while the consumer electronics firm Sharp said its factories were operating normally.
“I saw the ceiling and the floor undulating, and I could barely stand. I was very scared,” Katsufumi Abe, who was at Osaka’s main railway station when the quake struck, told Kyodo.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A girl was killed by a fallen wall caused by an earthquake at an elementary school in Takatsuki Photograph: KYODO/Reuters
The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said the government was assessing the damage and that its priority was to rescue anyone trapped inside buildings. He said he had instructed officials to “swiftly collect information on the damage, do their utmost to rescue people and save lives… and provide timely information to the public”.
An American visitor to the city described being woken up by violent shaking. “We were sleeping and it woke us up abruptly,” Kate Kilpatrick, who was staying in a hotel in Osaka, told Reuters. “It was so terrifying because this is my first earthquake. I thought it was a nightmare because I was so confused. The whole world was aggressively shaking.”
Some residents said their homes had not suffered structural damage but that the shaking had sent objects flying off shelves.
Monday’s earthquake was the third measuring higher than magnitude-4 to have struck Japan – one of the world’s most seismically active countries – in recent days.
In March 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people along Japan’s north-east coast.
Residents in western Japan were cleaning up debris Monday evening after a powerful earthquake hit the area around Osaka, the country's second-largest city, killing three people and injuring hundreds while knocking over walls and setting off fires.
The magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck the area early Monday damaged buildings and left many homes without water or gas. The quake also grounded flights in and out of Osaka and paralyzed traffic and commuter trains most of the day.
By evening, bullet trains and some local trains had resumed operation, and stations were swollen with commuters trying to get home, many of them waiting in long lines. An exodus of commuters who chose to walk home filled sidewalks and bridges.
Some commuters took refuge in nearby shelters instead of going home. NHK public television showed dozens of men wearing ties and carrying briefcases sitting on gym mats at a junior high school gymnasium in Ibaraki city, where some families also gathered.
A concrete wall at an elementary school in Takatsuki fell onto the street, killing 9-year-old Rina Miyake as she walked to the school. NHK showed the collapsed upper half of the high wall, which was painted cheerfully with flowers, trees and blue sky and surrounded the school swimming pool.
Mayor Takeshi Hamada apologized over her death because of the wall's collapse. The city acknowledged that the wall did not meet building safety codes. The structure was old and made of concrete blocks — a known risk in earthquakes. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga ordered the Education Ministry to conduct nationwide safety checks of concrete block structures at public schools.
More than 1,000 schools were closed in Osaka and nearby prefectures, Kyodo News reported. Wall cracks and other minor damage were found at several schools.
A man in his 80s died in the collapse of a concrete wall in Osaka city. An 85-year-old man in nearby Ibaraki died after a bookcase fell on top of him at home, according to the disaster management agency.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 307 people were treated for injuries at hospitals. Most of the injured were in Osaka. Osaka officials did not give details, but the injuries reported in Kyoto and three other neighboring prefectures were all minor.
The quake struck shortly before 8 a.m. north of Osaka at a depth of about 13 kilometers (8 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The strongest shaking was north of Osaka, but the quake rattled large parts of western Japan, including Kyoto, the agency said.
Dozens of domestic flights in and out of Osaka were grounded, while train and subway service in the Osaka area, including bullet trains, was suspended to check for damage. Passengers exited trains on the tracks between stations.
Some subway service resumed in the afternoon, but stations remained crowded with passengers waiting for trains to restart, many of them sitting on the floor. Long lines of people waited to board bullet trains as they resumed operation.
The quake knocked over walls, broke windows and set off scattered building fires. It toppled furniture in homes and goods onto shop floors. It also cracked roads and broke water pipes, leaving homes without water.
Many homes and buildings, including a major hospital, were temporarily without power, though electricity was restored at most places by midafternoon.
Due to damage to underground gas lines, 110,000 homes in Takatsuki and Ibaraki cities were without gas, and repairs are expected to take as long as two weeks, according to Osaka Gas Co.
More building damage was found in the afternoon as disaster and relief workers inspected and cleaned up the affected areas. Roofs and roof tiles at homes and at least one temple fell to the ground in Osaka. At a shrine in Kyoto, stone lanterns broke and collapsed to the ground.
Defense troops joined rescue and relief operations in parts of Osaka, along with special vehicles to deliver clean drinking water.
Residents cleaned up debris at home and stores throughout the day. Meteorological agency officials warned of strong aftershocks in the area, urging residents to stay away from damaged structures.
The earthquake reminded many of the magnitude 7.3 Kobe quake in 1995 that killed more than 6,000 people in the region. Monday's quake also followed a series of smaller quakes near Tokyo in recent weeks. Japan's northern prefectures are still recovering from a magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011 that killed more than 18,000.
"It was not as bad as the Kobe quake," said Jun Kawanami, a 30-year-old lawyer in Osaka. He said his wife ducked under a table and elevators in his office building were out of operation. "I used the stairs but I was out of breath by the time I arrived at my office on the 22nd floor," he said.
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This story has been corrected to say the quake struck shortly before 8 a.m., not after.
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Hiromi Tanoue in Osaka contributed to this report.
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Tokyo (CNN) A strong earthquake hit the Japanese city of Osaka during morning rush hour Monday, killing at least three people and injuring 214, Japan's government says.
The 5.3 magnitude quake shook Osaka, on Japan's main Honshu Island, around 8 a.m. Monday local time (7 p.m. Sunday ET) according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The Japan Meteorology Agency put the magnitude at 5.9. It rated the quake at "6 Lower" on its JMA Seismic Intensity scale, meaning the shaking would have been severe enough to make it difficult to remain standing.
Water floods out from crack in the road, following the Osaka quake.
A nine-year-old girl was killed after becoming trapped by a damaged wall in a swimming pool facility at her school in Takatsuki city, north of Osaka city.
Two elderly men also died, including an 85-year-old man trapped by a damaged block wall in Yodogawa-ku, and an 80-year-old man who was crushed by a falling bookshelf at his home in Ibaraki.
At least 214 people were hurt, according to Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
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TOKYO -- A strong earthquake knocked over walls and set off scattered fires Monday morning around metropolitan Osaka in western Japan. At least three people were killed and more than 300 were injured.
The Osaka prefectural government's disaster management department said two people were found dead, while the Ibaraki city official confirmed a third victim. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 214 people have been treated at hospitals in five prefectures. Most of the injured were in Osaka, which didn't give details, but the injuries reported in Kyoto and three other neighboring prefectures were all minor.
Japan's national broadcaster NHK reported that at least 350 people were wounded by the quake, but authorities were still saying 307 by Monday evening, local time.
One victim was a 9-year-old girl killed by a concrete wall that toppled at her elementary school as she walked by.
Reuters
A man in his 80s died in the collapse of another concrete wall in Osaka city. An 84-year-old man in nearby Ibaraki died after a bookshelf fell on top of him at home, according to city officials.
The magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck shortly after 8 a.m. north of Osaka at a depth of about 8 miles, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The strongest shaking was north of Osaka, but the quake rattled large parts of western Japan, including Kyoto, the agency said.
The quake knocked over walls, broke windows and set off scattered building fires. It toppled book shelves in homes and scattered goods on shop floors. It also cracked roads and broke water pipes, leaving homes without water.
BBC News cites officials who say another tremor could happen in the next few days.
The morning commute was disrupted, as dozens of domestic flights in and out of Osaka were grounded, while train and subway service in the Osaka area including the bullet train were suspended to check for damage. Passengers were seen exiting trains on the tracks between stations.
Nothing unusual was detected at the Mihama, Takahama and Ohi nuclear plants north of Osaka, Kansai Electric Power said, according to the Reuters news agency.
BBC News also notes that several key industrial areas near Osaka were affected. Companies like Panasonic and Daihatsu are suspending production at their affected sites.
