Two women were killed Saturday afternoon and at least 80 other people were reported injured, two of them seriously, when a powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted a large area of western Japan, the Meteorological Agency and police said.
In the city of Hojo in Ehime Prefecture, Kyoko Takeuchi, a 50-year-old housewife, was killed when the second-floor balcony of an apartment fell.
In Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, Tomoe Yamasaki, 80, was killed when part of a concrete gymnasium wall fell on her at Shimizugaoka Senior High School, police said. About a dozen other people were hurt in the same incident.