KUMAMOTO, Japan, Nov 26 (Kyodo/APP): No new casualties or residential damage were confirmed in southwestern Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture on Wednesday after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8 hit the region the previous evening, the prefectural government said.
Two prefectural roads remain closed to traffic Wednesday due to falling rocks and cracks on the road surface. In the village of Ubuyama, where the quake registered upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7, two vehicles were struck by falling rocks on a prefectural road, but no injuries were reported.
The previous day, local officials had confirmed that a woman in her 70s had sustained minor injuries after falling in her home in Aso.
Meanwhile, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Wednesday it will dispatch a mobile observation team to survey the area where a seismic intensity of upper 5 was registered.
The earthquake struck the southwestern Japan prefectures of Kumamoto and Oita around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, with Kumamoto’s Aso and Oita’s Taketa registering a seismic intensity of lower 5.
No injuries or damage to buildings were confirmed in Oita Prefecture, local officials said.