Japan earthquake by Amani Hughes

Where did Hokkaido earthquake hit? 

Japan has experienced another natural disaster in the form of a magnitude 6.6 earthquake which has killed two people and left 120 injured.

The major tremor hit Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday just before dawn local time.

The quake, which struck 27km east of Tomakomai, knocked out power to Hokkaido’s 5.3 million residents.

Despite the tremor hitting at a depth of 33.4 km (20.8 miles), the earthquake caused major destruction and led to major landslides which buried a number of homes at the foot of a ridge.

The majority of people were inured in Hokkaido’s capital Sapporo, Kazuya Isaki, an official with the Crisis Management Office of Hokkaido Prefecture Government.

In Atsuma in southern Hokkaido, near the epicentre of the quake, aerial footage showed dozens of landslides exposing barren hillsides with mount of reddish earth and toppled trees piled up at the edge of green fields.

The powerful earthquake lasted almost a minute and scenes from the southeastern part of Sapporo, showed crumbled roads and mud flowing onto a main street.

An unidentified man in Atsuma told NHK: “The shaking was really terrible. I thought the house was going to collapse.”

A series of aftershocks have struck the island of Hokkaido - a total of six since the magnitude 6.6 quake.

The tremors have measured from magnitude 4.3 to 5.4 near the epicentre of Thursday morning’s major quake.

A magnitude 5.4 quake is likely to have caused “damage of varying severity to poorly constructed buildings.”

More than 4,000 defence force soldiers have been deployed to help with rescue operations, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, and that number could rise to 25,000 if needed.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said aftershocks could pose a risk for the next week and buildings could collapse near the epicentre of the original quake.

The quake just comes days after Japan was hit by Typhoon Jebi - the strongest storm to hit Japan in 25 years.

The typhoon killed 10 people and injured 300, while high winds caused a tanker to smash into a bridge, which forced one of the country’s largest airports to close.

Helicopter rescue crews have been dispatched to the Japanese northern island and have airlifted around a dozen people to safety.

Evacuation shelters have been set up in many towns and cities around the region.

Public broadcaster NHK reported that flights and public transport across the region had been brought to a standstill.

Japan is situated on the “Ring of Fire” arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin.

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded in Japan, struck on March 11, 2001, off its northeastern coast, triggering a tsunami that devastated communities along the Pacific coast and killed nearly 20,000 people.