Moderate quake injures more than 30 in Japan

A moderate earthquake rattled eastern Japan, including the Tokyo area, early Sunday, injuring more than 30 people, most of them lightly, officials said. There was no danger of a tsunami.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 and its epicenter was in the southern Ibaraki prefecture with a depth of 70 kilometers (42 miles). The US Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 5.8.

At least 37 people were injured in five prefectures in the region - 15 in Tokyo, nine in Saitama, eight in Kanagawa, four in Chiba and one in Ibaraki - according to prefectural officials and the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

Most of the injured were hurt when they fell down or hit themselves against furniture or doors as they were caught off guard by the quake while sleeping and got out of bed in a panic, officials said. Among them was a woman in her 80s who fell off the bed and suffered a serious hip injury in Yokohama, in the Kanagawa prefecture, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

A 23-year-old man told the Asahi newspaper that he felt a vertical jolt seconds after his earthquake alert went off when he was shopping in Tokyo's eastern district of Taito. He said he feared getting hit by merchandise that fell from shelves as the building shook.

The quake caused delays to express trains serving Tokyo and Narita Airport and other local trains serving northeastern regions, but Shinkansen bullet trains were running normally, their operator East Japan Raiway Co. said.