6 Die as Quake Hits Northern Japan

7.2-Magnitude Temblor Strikes in Sparsely Populated Area

TOKYO, June 14 -- A strong earthquake tore up highways, ripped open hillsides and shook down bridges across a swath of rural northern Japan on Saturday morning, leaving at least six people dead, about 200 injured and 13 missing.

The death toll and property damage from the powerful 7.2-magnitude quake were relatively low, experts said, because the temblor was centered in thinly populated Iwate prefecture, about 190 miles north of Tokyo.

Still, damage to roads, railways and other infrastructure was extensive. Many communities were cut off from land transportation. The Japanese military dispatched helicopters and uniformed troops to deliver emergency supplies and evacuate the injured.

Authorities cautioned that the number of casualties could increase as rescue workers reach hard-hit remote areas. The quake shook buildings as far away as Tokyo.

"Our most important task is to save as many lives as possible," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said. "We are doing the best we can."

[Water from a dam in the quake zone started to leak, forcing rescue workers to abandon efforts to pull out a man trapped in a landslide, a military official told the Reuters news service Sunday. The official said about 30 homes were near the dam.]

Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. In 1995, a 7.3-magnitude quake in the city of Kobe killed more than 6,400 people.

Since then, tough building codes have substantially improved the capacity of office buildings and homes to withstand tremors.

On Saturday afternoon, inside many still-standing but shaken-up structures in the quake zone, belongings were thrown about and shattered, television news footage showed.

One woman, whose kitchen floor was covered with broken plates and glasses, told national broadcaster NHK: "It was so scary. I can't get myself to go even look at my kitchen."

The ground shook so much in some areas that pedestrians struggled to stay on their feet. "It was like being pushed hard onto the ground and then thrown back up again," one woman told NHK.

Cracks in the earth shredded some highways, and landslides gouged out huge gullies in forested mountains, giving them the appearance of having been strip-mined, aerial television images showed.

Earthquake experts said, however, that the destructive power of the quake was substantially less than the 7.9-magnitude earthquake May 12 that struck southwestern China, where about 87,000 people died or remain missing.

"The seismic energy of the China quake was one order of magnitude greater," Naoshi Hirata, a professor at Tokyo University's Earthquake Research Institute, told Reuters.

Nuclear power plants in the vicinity of the quake continued to operate normally Saturday, according to utility companies. About 29,000 people lost power and water, but most service had been restored late Saturday.

Inside the Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant, about five gallons of radioactive wastewater sloshed out of a pool, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co. It said nothing leaked outside the facility.

Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.