TOKYO: Powerful earthquakes just over 10 minutes apart rattled Japan and India Tuesday, triggering panic on fears of a tsunami in the Andaman Islands and injuring dozens of people southwest of Tokyo.
The unrelated quakes struck in the early hours, shutting down bullet train services in the affected region of Japan and provoking a landslide with the nation already braced for more damage from Typhoon Etau.
At least 43 people were injured, mostly by falling objects, with two in a serious condition, said a Shizuoka prefecture official. A nuclear power plant went into automatic shutdown but no incidents were registered.
In an address on Japanese public broadcaster NHK, Shizuoka governor Heita Kawakatsu urged the public to “remain level-headed and gather correct information we provide through TV programmes.”
The Japanese tremor registered a strong 6.4 while the quake off the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean was a huge 7.6, according to the US Geological Survey.
Panic-stricken islanders fled their homes, fearing a repeat of the enormous Asian tsunami that devastated the Andamans in 2004 and killed around 220,000 people in the region as a whole.
But a tsunami alert issued for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh was later cancelled by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center of the US National Weather Service.
“Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated,” it said.
The police control centre in Port Blair, the main town of the Andamans, said there were no immediate reports of any major damage or casualties.
The quake hit at 1:55 am (1955 GMT Monday) around 263 kilometres north of Port Blair, and was around 33 kilometres deep. Mild tremors were felt 1,190 kilometres away in the eastern Indian port city of Chennai.
The Japanese quake struck at 5:07 am (2007 GMT Monday) in the Pacific Ocean about 170 kilometres southwest of Tokyo at a depth of 26.8 kilometres.
It shook buildings and jolted people from their sleep in Tokyo and areas southwest of the capital.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency, which measured the quake at a revised 6.5, said there was no risk of a tsunami after initial waves raised the ocean surface by about 40 centimetres (16 inches) at Omaezaki, Shizuoka.
A large landslide triggered by the quake damaged a highway in the prefecture at Makinohara, causing long traffic jams, television footage showed.
The Meteorological Agency warned that Typhoon Etau — whose torrential rains have caused at least 13 deaths from flooding and landslides in Japan — could trigger further landslides as it moved northeast along the coast.
“Please be vigilant,” an agency official urged the public.
The typhoon was not forecast to make a direct landfall, but it was predicted to lash the Tokyo region with strong winds and heavy rains.
The quake caused power failures in 9,500 households, utility officials said, while Central Japan Railway Co. suspended Shinkansen bullet trains in the quake-hit region before resuming the services several hours later.
Prime Minister Taro Aso’s office set up an emergency centre shortly after the quake, which was followed by 13 noticeable aftershocks.
Around 20 percent of the world’s most powerful earthquakes strike Japan.
The Andaman Sea area witnesses frequent tremors caused by the meeting of the Indian tectonic plate with the Burmese microplate.

WASHINGTON: The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Washington was trying ‘behind the scenes’ to empower protesters disputing Iran’s presidential election.
In an interview with a UN news TV, Clinton said the US did not openly support the demonstrators since it did not want to act in a way that would allow the Iranian leadership to use the US support to unify the Iranian nation against the protesters.
“Now, behind the scenes, we were doing a lot,” Clinton said. “We were doing a lot to really empower the protesters without getting in the way.”
“We knew that if we stepped in too soon, too hard … the leadership would try to use us to unify the country against the protesters.”
The former first lady added that the US would not stop supporting those contesting the election results.
Iran became the scene of rallies after the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for another four-year term.
Protests were held mainly in the capital, Tehran, with some of them turning violent and resulting in the deaths of at least 30 people.
Iran accuses Western countries in particular the US and Britain for instigating the post-election protests in the country, calling on them to adopt a policy of non-interference toward the country.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank: Polling officials say the Palestinian Fatah movement has elected a slate of younger leaders to its highest body at its first conference in 20 years.
The results of the vote will show whether Fatah — the West’s best hope for eventually delivering a peace deal with Israel — has succeeded in reinvigorating the movement by bringing in new faces.
Early results show that at least 13 of the 18 elected members of Fatah’s Central Committee are from the movement’s younger generation. Four other members will be appointed by the Palestinian president, also a Central Committee member.
The officials declined to be named before official results are announced.