日本震災遇害人數上升到16人

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that rattled the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido doubled to at least 16, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said
Friday, with more than half the island's 5.3 million residents still without power.

The 6.7 magnitude quake, which hit before dawn Thursday, triggered landslides that buried houses and paralyzed Hokkaido with widespread power and transport cuts.

The death toll had been at eight overnight, but broadcaster NHK cited Abe in reporting the new total soon after he held an emergency meeting early Friday.

Another 26 people were missing, disaster management authorities said.

The island, a tourist destination about the size of Austria known for its mountains, lakes and seafood, lost all power after the quake when Hokkaido Electric Power Co. shut its fossil fuel-fired power plants as a precaution.

The utility had restored power to about 1.31 million of 2.95 million customers by early Friday, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. It could take at least a week to restore power fully.

The quake was the second disaster to hit Japan this week, after a summer during which the country has been battered by deadly typhoons, flooding and a record heat wave.日本首相安倍晉三表示，日本北部的北海道島發生的強烈地震造成的死亡人數翻了一番，至少上升到16人。

該島上530萬居民中有超過一半星期五仍沒有電。

星期四黎明前發生的6.7級地震引發了山體滑坡，導致房屋被掩埋，整個北海道也因大片地區停電和交通中斷而癱瘓。

昨晚公佈的地震死亡人數還為8人，不過在週五早些時候安倍召開緊急會議後不久，日本廣播協會就引用了新的數字。

災害管理部門表示，還有26人失蹤。

北海道島是一個大小相當於奧地利的旅遊勝地，以山脈、湖泊和海鮮聞名。地震發生之後，北海道電力公司關閉其燃料發電廠作為預防措施後，全島停電。

日本經濟產業省表示，電力公司週五早上已恢復向295萬客户中的約131萬户供電，可能需要至少一週才能完全恢復供電。

這次地震是日本本週遭遇的第二次災難。日本今年夏天受到致命的颱風、洪水和創紀錄的熱浪襲擊。