M5.2 quake shakes Tokyo, 12 people injured
The quake, which was centered in Tokyo Bay at a depth of around 57 kilometers, triggered no tsunami and caused no major traffic disruption, including at Tokyo's Haneda airport and to Shinkansen bullet train services. The quake, which occurred at 5:49 a.m., registered lower 5 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7 in Chofu in western Tokyo and 4 in central Tokyo areas including the Otemachi business district and Haneda airport, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It was the first quake rated at lower 5 on the seismic intensity scale in metropolitan Tokyo since May last year. An intensity of 4 was also recorded in parts of the neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, according to the agency. Some 11 people sustained injuries in Tokyo, while a 69-year-old woman broke her left arm in a fall from bed in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, local firefighters said. The quake caused minor disruption to rail services in Tokyo as subway and some other rail operators temporarily halted their operations after the quake. The transport ministry said that there was no damage to Haneda airport facilities and flights were unaffected. While it is feared that a major earthquake could occur in Tokyo in the future, an agency official dismissed a possible connection to Saturday morning's earthquake, saying its energy was about 1,000 times less than the envisioned powerful quake. But the official also warned of possible aftershocks in coming days of up to 4 on the seismic intensity scale. The quake's magnitude and depth were revised from the initially announced 5.3 and 70 km. Source: Kyodo
