Strong Quake Rocks Southwest Japan

A strong earthquake struck a wide area in southwestern Japan Saturday, killing at least two people, injuring dozens, damaging buildings and shaking windows as far away as South Korea.

In the city of Hiroshima, buildings swayed violently and people had trouble standing when the temblor struck in the middle of the afternoon with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4. Debris from roof tiles and broken windows littered streets.

"There was a terrible shaking and some products fell on to the floor," said Takuya Ueda, a cashier at a convenience store in Hiroshima. "It lasted a long time, about 30 seconds, but there was no panic inside the store."

An 80-year-old woman was killed under a collapsing concrete wall, said Yoshinobu Tanimoto, a fire department official in Hiroshima state.

In neighboring Ehime state, a 50-year-old woman fleeing her home died after roof tiles crashed down on her head, said national Police Agency official Tsuyoshi Iwashita.

Police said at least 61 people suffered injuries, including several teen-agers who were hit by fragments of a wall that crumbled in a high-school gymnasium.

The quake, centered some 40 miles below ground, struck at 3:28 p.m. near Hiroshima state, about 430 miles southwest of Tokyo, the Meteorological Agency said. The agency said there was no danger of tsunami, the waves caused by undersea disturbances such as earthquakes and volcanic activity.

In Hiroshima city, the quake set off a fire that burned down one home, said municipal official Akira Otao. Sixteen other homes in the city were partially destroyed. Dozens of schools and other public facilities were also damaged.

Train service was stopped, and the airport in Hiroshima closed for inspection. Telephone service was also disrupted, but there was no report of power outages. NHK said no nuclear reactors in quake-hit areas were affected.

Television footage taken from inside NHK's Hiroshima office showed hanging lights shaking and employees leaving their desks to head for the exits. Telephone service in the area was also interrupted briefly.

The temblor was also felt in South Korea, more than 150 miles northwest of the epicenter. Windows shook in towns along the nation's eastern and southern coasts.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and straddles three tectonic plates, the huge slabs of land that cover the surface of the Earth.

A magnitude-6 quake can seriously damage houses and buildings in a populated area. Saturday's quake was located offshore and relatively deep, which may have lightened its impact.

In October, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck a largely rural area in Tottori prefecture. Though at least 120 people were hurt in that quake, no one died. Some 2,000 homes were damaged, but only two were destroyed.

Some 6,000 people died when a powerful quake devastated the western Japan port of Kobe in 1995.