Strong earthquakes shake Tokyo area, Indian Ocean

[August 11, 2009]  TOKYO (AP) -- Two powerful earthquakes struck Asia early Tuesday, killing one and injuring dozens in coastal Japan and sending panicked residents into the streets as tsunami warnings were issued for countries skirting the Indian Ocean that were devastated by a deadly 2004 quake and tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake, registering magnitude 7.6, hit the Indian Ocean about 160 miles (257 kilometers) north of Port Blair in India's Andaman Islands. A tsunami watch was called for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh, but was later lifted.

T. Ramakrishnan, a police official in Port Blair, said there were no injuries or damage caused by the quake.

"But people ran out of their homes in fear as they remembered the 2004 tsunami," he said, referring to waves triggered by a magnitude-9.0 earthquake that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean.

The quake was centered at a depth of 20.6 miles (33 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. An aftershock measuring 4.8 shook the same area 15 minutes later at a depth of 21.7 miles (35 kilometers), it said.

In Japan, one person was killed and several dozen injured when a 6.5-magnitude quake hit Tokyo and nearby areas shortly after dawn Tuesday, halting trains and forcing two nuclear reactors to shut down for safety checks.

Police said one 43-year-old woman was killed by falling debris and at least 63 people were injured. Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, reported that more than 80 people suffered minor injuries.

Japan's Meteorological Agency -- which downgraded the quake from magnitude 6.6 -- also issued a tsunami warning, but that was later lifted. The quake was centered off Suruga Bay, southwest of Tokyo, at a depth of 12 miles (20 kilometers).

The two quakes -- though likely not related -- hit about 10 minutes apart.

"The shaking was quite strong, even here. It wasn't the usual little ones," said Mitsuharu Wakamori, a police official in Aichi, about 86 miles (140 kilometers) west of the Japanese quake's center.

Two reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant were temporarily halted for safety checks. Reactors are automatically shut down whenever a quake of a certain strength is registered.

Koki Saguchi of Chubu Electric Power Co. said no problems or damage were initially detected at the reactors. Plant workers were to inspect the reactors fully before resuming operation, which was expected to take at least half a day.

The temblor prompted Central Japan Railway Co. to briefly stop operations of Shinkansen bullet trains, and some local trains were still out of service hours later, the company said.

A magnitude-6.9 quake also rattled the region Sunday, but caused no damage or casualties. The USGS measured it at magnitude 7.1.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and experts believe Tokyo has a 90 percent chance of being hit by a major quake over the next 50 years.

In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the western port city of Kobe killed 6,400 people.

Katsuyuki Abe, a Tokyo University seismology professor, said experts were studying whether Tuesday's quake could foreshadow a major temblor. Tokyo was devastated by an earthquake in 1923.

"We are closely monitoring the developments and examining any changes in the region," he said.

[Associated Press; By ERIC TALMADGE]

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Grant Peck in Bangkok, Anthony Deutsch in Jakarta and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi contributed to this report.

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