Tokyo — At least three people have died and more than 200 have been injured in a 6.1-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan’s second-largest metropolis of Osaka and surrounding areas on Monday morning. The quake — which hit one of Japan’s industrial heartlands just before 8am on Monday local time (11pm GMT on Sunday) — halted factory lines and burst water mains, government officials and public broadcaster NHK said. Trains across the region also came to a halt. While the quake appeared to spare the region of major infrastructural damage, the Meteorological Agency warned that strong aftershocks could occur, particularly in the next two to three days. In 2016, the magnitude 7 earthquake that caused significant damage and multiple casualties in southern Kumamoto was preceded two days earlier by a magnitude 6.2 temblor. At 13km, Monday’s earthquake was relatively shallow, and caused heavy shaking that registered a lower 6 on the Japanese scale of 7. It was the strongest shaking registere...
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