TOKYO / Web Desk
Death toll has gone up to 41 in the powerful magnitude-7.3 earthquake that struck the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan early Saturday.
Over 1500 people were injured across Kyushu and about 90,000 people were evacuated to shelters in hardest-hit Kumamoto Prefecture. More than 1,700 houses were destroyed or partially damaged in Kumamoto, including over 1,400 in the village of Nishihara.
The M7.3 quake struck Kumamoto at the depth of about 12 kilometers at 1:25 a.m. Saturday. It registered upper 6 on Japan’s seismic scale of 7 and is believed to have been “the main quake,” the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Pix- Kyodo
Seismic experts believe a magnitude 7.3 quake that rocked southwestern Japan in the early hours of Saturday occurred on a separate fault zone from a massive temblor that struck barely a day earlier, and was triggered by a chain reaction involving a series of tremors.
The 1:25 a.m. earthquake, with the same intensity as the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, was about 16 times as large as a magnitude 6.5 temblor that hit Kumamoto Prefecture Thursday night, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, describing the latest jolt as the main quake and the initial one as a foreshock.