Two people were killed and 120 others injured in an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale, followed by a number of aftershocks, that rocked Japan's Hokkaido prefecture early on Thursday. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the major temblor was centred in the Hokkaido prefecture at 3.08 a.m. (Japan time) with the epicentre at a latitude of 42.7 degrees north and a longitude of 142.0 degrees east, and at depth of 40 km, Xinhua news agency reported.

Multiple houses were buried by landslides and rescue work is underway for those still missing, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said. The earthquake was logged upper 6 in some areas of Hokkaido prefecture on the Japanese seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7. It was the first time for a quake in Hokkaido to reach an intensity of upper 6 since the seismic scale was revised in 1996, the JMA noted.