A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck near the coast of Japan

Magnitude 6.5 Quake Hits Near Japan; 52 People Hurt

Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck near the coast of Japan, injuring more than 50 people and damaging buildings southwest of Tokyo as a tropical storm approached the area bringing heavy rain.

The earthquake hit 23 kilometers (14 miles) below the seabed 155 kilometers from Tokyo at 5:07 a.m. local time, shaking buildings in the capital, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on its Web site. JMA earlier put the magnitude of the quake, the second to hit near Tokyo in two days, at 6.6.

Fifty-two people were injured in areas near the epicenter, national broadcaster NHK Television said. It showed images of damaged roofs in the town of Yaizu, 19 kilometers west of the epicenter.

The earthquake struck as Tropical Storm Etau approached the coast southwest of Tokyo, bringing more rain after at least 13 people died from flooding in areas west of the quake epicenter. While Etau’s eye isn’t forecast to make landfall, the storm’s outer bands are buffeting the coast with winds as high as 54 kilometers per hour.

JMA issued warnings for possible landslides on Izu peninsula, east of the quake’s epicenter. Heavy rain warnings were issued for Shizuoka prefecture, also near the epicenter, Tokyo and other areas around the capital.

Andaman Quake

The tropical storm’s center was 208 kilometers south of the quake epicenter at 9 a.m. today, JMA said. The storm’s winds strengthened to 93 kilometers per hour from 83 kph earlier today. Etau’s winds were gusting to 130 kph as it moved east at 25 kph.

The quake occurred less than 15 minutes after a magnitude- 7.6 temblor hit the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, prompting a tsunami alert for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh. The alert was later canceled.

In Taiwan, as many as 500 people are feared dead after mudslides triggered by a typhoon buried houses in a village in the south of the country.

Near the epicenter of Japan’s quake, Yaizu experienced a reading of lower 6, the third highest-level on the Japanese scale of earthquake intensity, JMA said.

A tsunami wave with a height of 30 centimeters was recorded near Yaizu at 5:26 a.m., JMA said.

Electric Power Development Co., Japan’s biggest power wholesaler, halved output at a 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Yokohama south of Tokyo.

Damaged Highway

Bullet train services connecting Tokyo and Osaka resumed at about 8:20 a.m. after they were closed to check for damage, Central Japan Railway Co., the nation’s largest operator, said in a statement on its Web site.

Part of the main highway connecting Tokyo and Nagoya was also shut and Fuji Television showed damage to the road. In Tokyo, the Chiyoda metro line stopped briefly.

Two nuclear reactors in Omaezaki City shut down automatically after the quake, Chubu Electric Power Co. spokesman Atsuo Sawaki said by telephone. The company is checking for damage, he said.

Japan, which experiences about one-fifth of the world’s earthquakes annually, lies in a zone where four tectonic plates meet and occasionally shift, sometimes producing earthquakes and tsunamis.

A magnitude-6.9 quake struck south of Tokyo two days ago 187 kilometers south of today’s quake.