Tokyo 5.9 earthquake: more than 30 . injured

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The quake also damaged underground water pipes and stopped trains and subways.

TOKYO, Japan – A powerful 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook the Tokyo region Thursday night, injuring more than 30 people, damaging underground water pipes and halting trains and subways.

Officials said there was no danger of a tsunami, but the traffic disruption continued into the next morning, with local trains delayed and passengers drowning at stations.

The meteorological agency said the quake’s epicenter was in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, at a depth of about 80 km.

It caused buildings to sway and hanging objects like signs on to swing violently. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said there were no anomalies in nuclear power facilities in the region.

Most trains run on Friday mornings but with significant delays and entry restrictions to avoid crowding. There was a long queue outside Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, and hundreds of morning commuters were flooding from Kawaguchi Station.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on Friday that 32 people were injured, three of them seriously, in the quake.

Police in Chiba Prefecture, where 11 people were injured, said two women in separate locations lied to their ankles when they were thrown to the ground during the quake. A passenger train was partially derailed in eastern Tokyo when it came to an emergency stop, causing the fall of three passengers and slightly injuring three passengers, the disaster management agency said.

Others were injured in Kanagawa, Saitama and Gunma prefectures.

The Tokyo Electric Power Holding Company said that about 250 homes in central Tokyo were temporarily without power.

The East Japan Railway Corporation said high-speed Shinkansen trains in and out of Tokyo were halted for safety checks but later resumed.

The Yamanote loop line in Tokyo and the subway restarted late Thursday, but with significant delays. Outside Tokyo’s Shinagawa station, where local trains were temporarily halted due to a power outage, there was a long line of people trying to bring taxis home.

Dozens in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba were stranded at stations, and some took refuge in facilities set up by local municipalities.

Several elevators stopped automatically, including those in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, temporarily trapping some people.

Fire and disaster officials said underground water pipes were damaged at dozens of sites in Tokyo. In one area, water was flowing from the ground.

New Prime Minister Fumio Kishida posted a message on Twitter urging people to “check the latest information and take action to protect their lives”. He said it was the strongest earthquake in Tokyo since March 2011.

Kishida returned to his office late Thursday to lead the government’s response.

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