Quake kills 2, injures 45 in Japan

TOKYO -- At least two people were killed and 45 injured by a magnitude-6.5 earthquake that knocked down houses and buckled roads in southern Japan on Thursday night.

Both victims are from the hardest-hit town of Mashiki, about 9 miles east of Kumamoto city on the island of Kyushu, said Kumamoto prefecture disaster management official Takayuki Matsushita.

Earlier, Japanese Red Cross Kumamoto Hospital said it had admitted or treated 45 people, including five with serious injuries.

The quake struck at 9:26 p.m. at a depth of 7 miles near Kumamoto city on the island of Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There was no tsunami risk.

"The shaking was so violent, I couldn't stand still," said Hironobu Kosaki, a Kumamoto Prefectural Police night-duty official.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at least 19 houses collapsed, and hundreds of calls came in reporting building damage and people buried under debris or trapped inside.

"Because of the night darkness, the extent of damage is still unclear," he said.

The damage and calls for help are concentrated in the town of Mashiki, about 800 miles southwest of Tokyo, Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

One of the victims in Mashiki died after being pulled from some rubble, and the other was killed in a fire, Matsushita said.

A third person rescued from under a collapsed building is in a state of heart and lung failure.

Matsushita said rescue operations were disrupted repeatedly by aftershocks.

"There was a ka-boom, and the whole house shook violently sideways," Takahiko Morita, a Mashiki resident said in a telephone interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK.

"Furniture and bookshelves fell down, and books were all over the floor."