Japan city struck by new earthquake

By BBC Online

A powerful earthquake has struck near the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto, a day after a tremor there killed at least nine people.

The magnitude-7.1 quake at a depth of 10km (6 miles) hit at 01:25 on Saturday (16:25 GMT on Friday). A second - smaller - quake hit later.

A tsunami warning was issued, but has now been lifted.

Japan is regularly hit by earthquakes but stringent building codes mean that they rarely cause significant damage.

Thursday's magnitude-6.2 quake caused shaking at some places as intense as the huge earthquake that hit the country in 2011, Japan's seismology office said.

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That quake sparked a huge tsunami and nuclear meltdown at a power plant in Fukushima.

Most of those who died in Thursday's quake were in the town of Mashiki in the Kyushu region in south-western Japan where an apartment building collapsed and many houses were damaged.

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More than 1,000 people were injured.

More than 40,000 people had initially fled their homes, with many of those closest to the epicentre spending the night outside.