Big ’quake rocks Japan

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 6

Big ’quake rocks Japan

NZPA-Reuter Tokyo At least 15 people were killed yesterday in a severe earthquake which set skyscrapers swaying and caused a tidal wave alert on Japan’s heavilypopulated main island of Honshu. The police said two more people were feared dead in the tremour, which jolted Tokyo and other cities on the Pacific coast. As reports came in of the first casualties, tsunamis were reported rolling across the Pacific towards Honshu. The epicentre of the earthquake—which measured 7.5 on the Richter scale—was 100 km off the Honshu coast under the Pacific seabed.

i The first deaths were reported from the Pacific coast city of Sendai, 300 km north-east of Tokyo. The police said 10 people had been killed when buildings and electricity pylons collapsed. The earthquake struck at 8.15 p.m. (New Zealand time) and lasted several seconds. The Japanese Meteorological Agency said the shock was the strongest earthquake in the country for 15 years. Tsunamis up to two metres high were possible, it said. The agency did not know exactly when the tidal waves would hit the Honshu coast. But it said warnings had been issued to people living on lowlying coastal land.