Earthquake Kills Six in Northern Japan

At least six people were killed and dozens of others injured after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked a large area of northern Japan on Saturday morning.

Officials said at least 144 people were injured, and landslides had trapped 100 bathers at a hot spring resort. At least eight people were missing.

The quake happened at 8.43am local time (0.43am BST) and was centred on a rural area of Iwate prefecture, about 280 miles north of Tokyo.

Surveillance cameras shook violently for about 30 seconds as the quake jolted buildings and sent items crashing to the ground.

"I saw some shattered windows and broken roof tiles," a city hall worker in Miyagi prefecture told NHK, Japan's public broadcaster. "There were no collapsed buildings."

Sachiko Sugihara, a convenience store worker, told the station: "It was scary. It was difficult to stand up. The TV fell over and the refrigerator shook."

About 20 passengers on a bus heading to Sendai airport, on Japan's north-east coast, were reported to have been injured, four of them seriously.

No tsunami warnings have been issued.

Several children and teachers at a daycare center in Oshu, Iwate prefecture, sustained cuts from falling glass, local TV reports said.

The chief cabinet secretary, Nobutaka Machimura, said 29,000 households had been left without electricity.

Bullet train services were immediately suspended. There were no reports of damage or disruption to two nuclear power stations in the area, according to Tokyo Electric Power.

Officials in the town of Kurihara, in Miyagi prefecture, said a bridge had collapsed and several landslides had been triggered by the quake.

Seismologists reportedly issued an advance warning of the quake moments before it struck.

Japan, one of the world's most seismically active countries, is experimenting with early-warning technology that could eventually give people enough time to take cover or move to open ground in the event of a major quake.

More than 6,400 people died in a 7.3-magnitude quake in the western port city of Kobe in January 1995. In October 2004, an earthquake in the Niigata area of northern Japan killed 65 people and injured more than 3,000 others.