A 6.2 magnitude earthquake, nearly as strong as last month's deadly tremor in Indonesia, shook large areas of southwestern Japan yesterday, injuring at least six but not killing anyone.
Local trains were temporarily suspended as a precaution and some elevators came to a halt in the early morning earthquake. Police said six people were hurt, but none faced life-threatening injuries.
The Japan Meteorological Agency upgraded the strength of the quake from an initial 6.1 magnitude, but said it did not expect more major tremors.
"Aftershocks will happen but we're not predicting strong ones that could cause serious damages," agency official Takeshi Hachimine told reporters.
"If the epicenter is located deep down, strong shakes tend to spread to wider areas, not limited to right above the epicenter," he said.
The tremor was just a notch below the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta and its surroundings on the island of Java on May 27 and killed 5,855 people.
Japan, which is hit by 20 percent of the world's major earthquakes, has used its wealth to develop an infrastructure to withstand tremors, with buildings in Tokyo and other cities designed to cope with the dreaded "Big One."
The quake struck at 5:01am with its epicenter 140km below ground near the town of Oita on the main southern island of Kyushu, the Meteorological Agency said.
Three hours after the quake, a separate moderate tremor measuring 4.8 in magnitude hit northern Japan off Aomori Prefecture, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
A woman in her 60s was hospitalized after hitting her head on a pole in the city of Matsuyama but is now in stable condition, the fire department said.
In Hiroshima City, a junior high school student was injured by a falling object, a 56-year-old man hurt his arm and a man in his 40s was scratched on his face by his frightened cat, officials said.
In Hatsukaichi City of Hiroshima Prefecture, an 82-year-old woman fell and broke her right leg after her dog was surprised by the quake and dragged her on the ground, a fire department official said.
In another case, a man staying at a campsite in southwestern Miyazaki Prefecture "hit his elbow hard against a wall when rushing to turn off the heat, but the injury was very mild," a prefectural official said.
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