Massive earthquake in Japan: Lanslides triggered, people missing

The Island of Hokkaido in north Japan was struck by a 6,7 magnitude earthquake with disastrous consequences.

The incident occurred on Thursday, 6 of September and resulted in landslides that crushed houses. Power was knocked out for Hokkaido's 2.9 million households. Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko stated that the power outage was caused by an emergency shutdown of the main thermal power plant at Tomato Atsuma that supplies half of Hokkaido's electricity. While the epicenter of the shock was east of the city of Tomakomai, the temblor damages the area of Hokkaido's prefectural capital of Sapporo, with a population of 1.9 million. According to Japan's Meteorological Agency, the depth of the epicenter was about 40km.

125 people were injured and about 40 are feared missing according to Japanese national broadcaster NHK. Jiro Akama, Reconstruction Minister of Japan, said that 5 people were buried in the town's Yoshino district. Aerial views recorded numerous landslide events in almost every mountainside. All airports and many roads were closed after the event. According to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, 25.000 troops will aid the rescue attempts.

Japan is a country that has suffered from earthquakes before and thus the authorities are usually well-organized to tackle such events. However, numerous disastrous incidents have struck the area the last few months making the management of the situation extremely difficult. Just before the quake, a typhoon spread havoc in western Japan closing the main airport near Osaka and Kobe. Moreover, during the summer, high temperatures and devastating floods challenged the resilience of the country.