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Quake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hits Kyushu

An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale jolted Japan's southern Kyushu island early Wednesday, injuring 22 people, several seriously, in an aftershock exactly a month after a major tremor, officials said.

The quake took place at 6:11am off the coast of Fukuoka, 850km southwest of Tokyo, with its focus 14km below sea level, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

It was believed to be an aftershock of a 7.0-magnitude quake on March 20, which killed one person and injured more than 700 people in the Fukuoka region, the main population center of southern Japan.

The meteorological agency said no tsunami warning was issued for the latest quake.

Twenty-one people were injured in Fukuoka. Four suffered injuries which were serious although not life-threatening, including a 41-year-old woman who broke the bone of her left shoulder, police said.

In Saga prefecture, southwest of Fukuoka, a 79-year-old woman fell out of bed, fracturing her right thigh bone, a local official said.

At least five landslides were reported in Fukuoka, where 31 houses and buildings were badly damaged.

Six glass windows at Fukuoka airport were also broken as a result of the powerful tremor while bullet train services were temporarily suspended on part of the Sanyo Shinkansen line linking Fukuoka with Osaka, western Japan.

Japan, which lies at the crossing of four tectonic plates, endures about 20 percent of the world's powerful earthquakes, frequently jolting Tokyo and other major cities where buildings are made to resist tremors.

On Tuesday, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake jolted the Pacific Ocean near Torishima, an uninhabited volcanic island 500km south of Tokyo known for endangered birds.

On April 11, an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale rattled Tokyo as commuters headed to work, but there were no damage or casualties.

In October 40 people died, many of them to stress in the aftermath, in the north-central province of Niigata.

The Niigata earthquake was the biggest since the western Japan port city of Kobe was devastated by an earthquake in 1995 killing 6,433 people.
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