Strong quake damages Japanese nuclear reactor

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan’s north-west coast today, killing at least seven people, injuring hundreds and damaging a nuclear reactor that reportedly leaked water containing radioactive material.

National broadcaster NHK reported that the water leaked from the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant into the Sea of Japan, but that the radioactivity level was below safely levels and posed no danger to the environment.

The reactor had been automatically shut down at the time of the leak, the reports said.

The quake triggered a fire at an electrical transformer at the plant, but plant operator Tokyo Electric Power said earlier in the day that the reactor had not been damaged.

In Kashiwazaki city, the quake reduced older buildings to piles of lumber.

National broadcaster NHK reported more than 800 people were hurt, with injuries including broken bones, cuts and bruises.

Six people in their 70s and 80s – four women and two men – died after being crushed when buildings collapsed on them in the quake, said officials with the National Police Agency in Tokyo.

A seventh person – an 82-year old man – died at a hospital where he had been taken with quake-related injuries, said NPA spokesman Shigeyoshi Nagano.