Japan spends anxious night after quake kills 21

Thousands of weary and frightened residents in northern Japan were spending a second night in shelters, cars or in the open yesterday after Japan's deadliest earthquake in nine years killed at least 21 people.

More than 2,100 were injured when the 6.8 magnitude quake and a series of powerful aftershocks struck rural Niigata prefecture, about 250 kilometres north of Tokyo, on Saturday, setting off landslides, wrecking houses and buckling railway tracks.

Repeated aftershocks struck the region well into the night yesterday, raising concerns of more landslides in the largely mountainous region.

One slide devastated a village, killing at least two people and cutting off about 600 residents for more than 12 hours.

The quake, coming days after a typhoon killed at least 80 people, is the deadliest in Japan since the Kobe earthquake killed more than 6,400 in 1995.

In Tokyo, where the government set up a crisis centre, officials were trying to contact remote areas and arrange to transport food, water, blankets, heaters and other necessities.

The quake and aftershocks shook buildings in Tokyo on Saturday but there were no reports of injuries or major damage. Officials have estimated a quake of similar scale in the Tokyo area would kill about 7,000 people.

As darkness fell, nearly 130,000 households in Niigata were without power and many also lacked water, gas or phone service. Some mobile phone services were not working while operators limited use on others to ensure emergency calls got through.

"Our 'life-line' has been cut. There is no toilet, gas or electricity and it was cold last night," Toshiro Hosoya, 57, a high school teacher in the town of Ojiya, told Reuters.

"I'm not terrified, but the aftershocks keep coming, so I have a strange feeling of unease."

People huddled around small bonfires as night fell and temperatures began to drop. The night before, temperatures fell to about five degrees Celsius.

"I'm wearing at least six layers of clothes," one woman said. "But it's still safer than being inside."

A man said, "These two nights have seemed very long."

Ojiya is a textile centre of 40,000 and fears emerged yesterday that 30 residents who had evacuated downstream of a river blocked by a landslide might be swept away.

In the city of Nagaoka, the lopsided front carriage of a bullet train rested on the side of its track, the first derailment since the high-speed service began 40 years ago.

There were no injuries, a Transport Ministry official said. Later, officials said it could take weeks to restore service.

Small local hospitals overflowed with injured, some of whom were being treated in hallways.

More than 250 aftershocks that could be felt by humans had struck since the initial quake, the Meteorological Agency said, and officials warned of more strong tremors.

The dead in Niigata, a rice-growing region bordering the Sea of Japan, included a two-month-old infant and an elderly man in hospital whose respirator was shaken loose by the quake.

More than 80,000 people had been evacuated to schools and other public centres.

As night fell, long lines formed as people waited to be given rice balls and bread. But supplies often fell short.

"We haven't eaten since the quake," one man said, clutching water and packs of rice. "I'm really happy to get this."

There were no reports of significant damage to industry in the region, which includes chemical and textile manufacturing as well as electronics and food processing.

Some factories had halted production, however, and damage to roads and railways raised concerns about distribution bottlenecks, media reports said.

Companies with operations in the area include Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., maker of Panasonic products, as well as consumer electronics group Sharp Corp. and Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd.

Officials warned of more landslides in areas hit recently by heavy rains from a record 10 typhoons to hit Japan this year.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who met with officials yesterday night to discuss what measures to take, told reporters the quake "must be beyond our imagination in terms of fear and damage".

An extra budget would almost certainly be needed to help cope with recent disasters such as the quake and a series of typhoons that have battered the nation, media said.

The quake's magnitude was measured according to a technique similar to the Richter scale but adjusted for Japan's geological characteristics. The US Geological Survey said on its website the quake measured 6.9 on the Richter scale. Japan is one of the world's most seismically active areas, accounting for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude six or greater.