Northern Japan quake kills at least three

KURIHARA, Japan (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake rockedrural northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least threepeople, injuring more than 100 and sparking huge landslidesthat blocked roads and isolated residents.

The 7.2 magnitude quake struck at 8:43 a.m. (12:43 a.m.British time) in Iwate, a sparsely populated, scenic areaaround 300 km (190 miles) north of Tokyo, where buildings alsoshook.

More than 160 aftershocks rocked the northern area andofficials warned more strong quakes might be in store.

But experts said the energy released by the quake was farsmaller than the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that hit southwesternChina on May 12, leaving nearly 87,000 people dead or missing.

"There's one whole mountain gone. It's all over the roadnow," said one woman in her 50s, who said she and her husbandhad been en route to a hot spring resort but had to abandontheir car and walk because roads were blocked by a landslide.

One of the people killed was caught in a landslide, ChiefCabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters. A secondman was hit by a car after running out of a building and athird was killed by falling rocks at a dam construction site.

Seven people were trapped in a hot-spring resort inn hit bya landslide but police had rescued five and were trying to getthe other two out, NHK public TV reported.

NHK said a total of 12 people were missing as aftershocksjolted the region, hampering rescue efforts.

"The aftershocks are continuing ... so a very carefulresponse is required," Shinya Izumi, the cabinet minister incharge of disaster response, told a news conference.

"But we also need to rescue people as quickly as possible.It is a very tough situation."

Three more were missing at a work site after a landslide inKurihara, Kyodo news agency reported, adding that more than 150people were hurt throughout the quake-hit region. Four campersincluding three non-Japanese, were unreachable, Kyodo said.

REMOTE AREA, SPARSE POPULATION

More than 300 people were cut off in remote areas afterlandslides blocked roads, and rescue helicopters were headingtheir way, media reports said. TV footage showed huge cracks insome roads, while others were swamped by landslides.

Experts said casualties could rise as reports came in fromisolated areas but the scope of the quake was far smaller thanone that stuck China a month ago.

"The seismic energy of the China quake was one order ofmagnitude greater," Naoshi Hirata, a professor at TokyoUniversity's Earthquake Research Institute, told Reuters.

He added the region's sparse population and Japan's strictbuilding standards had likely limited the impact.

Rail operator JR East said 2,000 were trapped on bullettrains that stopped between stations due to the quake. Somelines had resumed service but 1,000 passengers were stillwaiting on one stranded train, JR East said.

Water containing a small amount of radiation leaked withina Tokyo Electric Power Co nuclear power facility in the region,but there was no leakage outside, a spokesman for Japan'sbiggest utility said.

Tohoku Electric Power said its nuclear plants at Onagawaand Higashidori were running as usual.

About 20 people on a bus swept by a landslide 50 metresinto a ravine were rescued by helicopter, media reports said,adding that several were injured, some seriously.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's mostseismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater,prompting tough building codes to try to limit damage.

The government set up an emergency response centre, theTokyo Fire Department sent a relief team and the local governorasked for help from a military disaster relief unit.

"We are doing all that we can," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukudatold reporters. "The most important thing is to rescue people.

Tohoku Electric Power Co said more than 30,000 peoplesuffered power cuts but most was restored within hours of theshallow quake. Hundreds of households were without water.

"It shook for about two minutes," Kazue Hishiya, manager ofa hotel in Iwate prefecture, said by telephone.

"Three television sets fell off shelves, elevators havestopped, and we've turned off the boiler."

In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 peopleand injuring more than 3,000.

That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremorhit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400.

(Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka, Yoko Kubota, YuzoSaeki, Chikafumi Hodo, Osamu Tsukimori and Nathan Layne;Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Jerry Norton)