Japan quake strands over 3,500 on trains overnight

Japan quake strands over 3,500 on trains overnight
REUTERS

TOKYO, MARCH 25: Japan's shinkansen "bullet"train resumed operations in western Japan on Sunday, one day after a powerful earthquake killed two people there and forced more than 3,500 passengers to spend the night on that and other trains.

Officials said that the "bullet" train resumed servicessome 17 hours after the quake, which hit the city of Hiroshima with a force of 6.4 on the Richter scale and damaged or destroyed 3,826 homes or other buildings. Other trains also resumed on Sunday.

Elsewhere in the region, repair work began on the damagedbuildings, roads and water supply networks, but there was no immediate estimate of the cost of the damage.

Mindful of a possible public backlash, embattled PrimeMinister Yoshiro Mori, in Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, responded quickly to the disaster.

"I have directed the government will make every effort todetermine the extent of the damage to keep in contact with the appropriate local authorities," he said in a statement.

Mori was sharply criticised over his handling of thesinking of a Japanese trawler by a U.S. Nuclear submarine last month, when he finished a golf game before returning to Tokyo.

Saturday's tremor, centred in the sea off Hiroshima, about690 km (430 miles) southwest of Tokyo, killed two people and injured at least 170.

It damaged water mains, leaving 34,000 households withoutwater, and triggered landslides in more than 50 locations, officials said.

Some residents fled their homes and spent the night inpublic facilities.

Long prone to killer quakes, Japan has strict buildingcodes that mean there is typically little major damage from all but the most serious tremors, such as a massive quake that hit the city of Kobe in western Japan in 1995, killing more than 6,000 people.

Saturday's quake measured a "lower six" on the Japanesescale of one to seven. Such a quake can make it difficult to stand and can damage non-earthquake protected buildings.