FUKUOKA, Japan, March 20 -- A powerful earthquake jolted southern Japanese islands on Sunday, killing an elderly woman, injuring 400 people and triggering landslides.
In a region still jittery from the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in late December, authorities evacuated half the residents of a tiny island near the epicenter and warned of a tsunami, but later canceled the alert.
Houses lie collapsed on Genkaijima island in southern Japan after the quake. Hundreds had to flee their homes.
(Kyodo News Via Reuters)
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The magnitude 7.0 temblor hit west of Kyushu island at 10:53 a.m., Japan's Meteorological Agency said. At least one magnitude 4.2 aftershock was recorded.
Minutes after the shaking began, the agency warned of the possibility of a tsunami triggered by the seismic activity. Such waves can grow to towering heights as they approach land, and authorities cautioned residents near the water to move to higher ground. But the agency withdrew the warning after about an hour.
"There may be some disturbance of the ocean's surface, but we aren't worried about tsunami damage," said Masahiro Yamamoto of the Meteorological Agency. He predicted that strong aftershocks of up to a magnitude of 6 would continue.
On Dec. 26, a magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that devastated South Asian and African coastlines in a dozen nations, killing at least 220,000 people.
The worst damage from Sunday's quake was nearest to the epicenter, on the tiny Genkai island, where the shaking touched off landslides and leveled homes. About 120 Japanese troops flew to the island just west of Kyushu to offer food and medical aid and help evacuate more than 400 of the island's 850 residents.
Nearby in the city of Fukuoka, a 75-year-old woman died after a section of a stone wall fell on her, a Fukuoka prefectural government spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
At least 400 were injured by the quake and treated at hospitals, NHK television network reported. Most of the injured were in the hardest-hit Fukuoka prefecture on western Kyushu, 560 miles southwest of Tokyo. The Fukuoka prefectural government's Web site reported 107 injuries. Some people were struck by toppling cabinets or shattered glass, or burned by stoves.
Nearly 2,000 residents, including those from Genkai island, evacuated their homes to stay in temporary shelters in Fukuoka for the evening.
In Okawa city, in Saga prefecture, a 56-year-old man suffered broken bones after trying to jump to safety from the second floor of his home, NHK reported. One person was reportedly rescued after being pinned inside a collapsed home.
