Tokyo -- A magnitude 7.2 earthquake ripped across the mountains and rice fields of northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least six people as it sheared off hillsides, jolted buildings and shook nuclear power plants. At least eight people were missing.
Military helicopters swarmed the quake zone 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Tokyo, ferrying in supplies and flying the injured to hospitals. Officials said at least 144 people were injured, and landslides trapped 100 bathers at a hot spring resort. Local media reports said the number of injuries exceeded 200.
At a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, the jolt splashed 5 gallons (20 liters) of radioactive water from two pools storing spent fuel, but there was no leakage outside the plant, said Trade and Industry Ministry official Yoshinori Moriyama.
The force of the quake, which was followed by some 153 aftershocks, buckled many roads, including one highway that was severed when a stretch of land collapsed, creating a cliffside. Electricity was cut to about 29,000 households, though service was mostly restored by Saturday night.
"I couldn't do anything. I couldn't move," said Akiko Kikusawa, 82, who was among about a dozen people being served hot soup at an evacuation center near Kurihara, one of the worst-hit cities in northern Miyagi prefecture (state).
"But I'm among the lucky ones," she said. "The other people here lost their homes."
Hundreds of other people also took refuge, though damage in cities was limited because the quake struck mostly rural mountainous areas, where it triggered massive landslides.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said the government was mobilizing troops, police and "everybody we possibly can" to find the missing and to rescue and treat the injured. He ordered rescue workers to continue their efforts through the night.
"Our most important task is to save as many lives as possible, and we are doing the best we can," he said.
The six dead included a man who ran out of a building in fear and was hit by a passing truck, four people buried by landslides and a construction worker hit by a falling rock at a dam, officials said.
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