Evening star., 1924-01-15
80 REPORTED DEAD
QUAKE HITS
BIG JAPANESE CITIES
Shock in Toxic Lasts IL
. Minutes, With Half Intensity
Shown in September.
RAIL SERVICE IMPAIRED;
COMMUNICATIONS CUT
No Foreigners Hurt-Many Ma
tives Injured by Falling Roofs
and Windows.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
TOXIC. January 15.-Fifty persons
are believed to have been killed In
Toxic, Yokohama and the outside dis
tricts in today's earthquake, while
many persons were injured. No cas-
ualties among foreigners have been
reported.
Except for windows smashed by the
shock, plaster shaken from the walls
and tiles from the roof. no serious
damage to the Imperial Hotel re-
suited
All the serious casualties in the af-
fected district are said to have been
confined to Japanese.
The center of the earthquake is be-
lieved to have been near Tanzawa
mountain, in Sagami province, ac-
cording to officials Of the Central
Observatory, where it's duration was
recorded as twelve minutes. Its in
tensity was estimated at half that Of
last September.
The first heavy temblor since the
disastrous convulsions of last Sep
temoer occurred at 5:i5 o'clock.
Guests Rush to Safety.
The Imperial Hotel. filled with
American travellers, many here as a
result of reconstruction necessitated
by the September catastrophe. quick
ly emptied. The guests, nearly panic
stricken, rushed for safety outside
the structure.
Thousands of residents of Toxic
were eating breakfast in the streets
this morning, not daring to return
to their homes.
Railway service west Of Tokio has
been. suspended as a result of tho
damage wrought by the quake.
Local street railway lines suspended
service for half hour after the
shock. but service was resum I'D when
cursory examination revealed that
the lines had not been permanently
impaired by the tembIor.
Despite badly crippled teleSra ph:c
communications. news of the inter-
ruption of rail traffic and the derail-
inent of trains is beginaing to trickie
In to official heads here.
Freight Train DeraiIed. 49,
The earthquake derailed part of a
freight train at Totsuka, near Yoko-
hama, and threw an engine off the
track in Omori, a suburb of Toxic.
All railway lines between Hiratsuka
and Ch!gasaki were broken.
Communication between Toxic and
Kobe was cut off. The express from
Kobe was stopped at Kozu, owing to
damage to the roadbed.
The cabinet went into session i'm
mediately after the earthquake to
consider relier measures. and to OBJ
tain information regarding the ex-
tent of the damage.
The stock market suspended opera
tons. owing to the failure Of COM
municationS.
Damage in Odawaru,
One report stated that six hundred
houses had been demolished in Yoko-
hama.
Odawara. a city on Kawatsu bay,
about seventy-f1Ve miles southwest of
here. suffered the greatest damage
from the temblor. as 1t did last Sep
tember, when vast sections Of both
Yokohama and Toxic and surround.
Ing cities virtually were destroyed.
Water mains were ripped from their
places and smashed by the quake,
and water flooded the streets and
hundreds of homes in the two cities
following the shock. Big buildings Of
modern construction which were
badly damaged and in many In
stances stu in partial ruin from the
dlsaster of last September were
further damaged by today's temblor.