Strong quake in Japan kills five

Japan has been rocked by a strong earthquake that killed at least five people and injured more than 600.

A strong aftershock with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 reportedly hit the Niigata area of northwestern Japan.

Earlier in the day, two women in their 80s died when their homes collapsed due to the original tremor that measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. A police spokesman confirmed five deaths, with media reporting another elderly woman and a couple were among the dead.

There are also reports of at least 12 people trapped under collapsed houses near the quake's epicentre, around 155 miles northwest of Tokyo.

Kashiwazaki resident Hiroki Takahashi said: "I was on the street, and there was strong sideways shaking. I couldn't remain standing. One wall has collapsed."

Buildings swayed as far away as Tokyo and nuclear power reactors in Niigata prefecture were shut down for checks, but there were no radiation leaks reported.

Black smoke billowed from a fire in an electrical transformer building at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant - the world's largest - near the epicentre. Firefighters said the blaze is now close to being put out.

Japan's Meteorological Agency warned that aftershocks could continue to rock the area, where evacuation centres were being set up.

Troops and extra emergency teams are being sent to help with rescue and clean-up efforts in the area, where TV pictures showed several houses and a temple had collapsed.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said an emergency office had been set up to deal with the quake.

Niigata was the site of an earthquake in October 2004, with a matching magnitude of 6.8, that killed 65 people and injured more than 3,000.

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

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