Thousands roam Tokyo streets

TOKYO: Japan's huge earthquake brought super-modern Tokyo to a standstill Friday, paralysing trains that normally run like clockwork and stranding hordes of commuters carrying mobile phones rendered largely useless by widespread outages.

The magnitude-8.9 quake off Japan's north-eastern coast shook buildings in the capital, left millions of homes across Japan without electricity, shut down the mobile phone network and severely disrupted landline telephone service. It brought the train system to a halt, choking a daily commuter flow of more than 10 million people.

Tokyo prides itself on being an orderly, technologically savvy, even futuristic city. Residents have long daily commutes and usually can rely on a huge, criss-crossing network of train and subway lines. Tens of thousands of people milled at train stations and were preparing to spend the night at 24-hour cafes and hotels.

Phone lines were crammed, preventing some calls and text messages from getting through. Calls to northeastern Japan, where a seven-metre tsunami washed ashore after the quake, often failed to go through, with a recording saying the area's lines were busy.

Marketing company employee Koto Fujikawa (28) was riding a monorail when the quake hit and had to later pick her way along narrow, elevated tracks to the nearest station.

“I thought I was going to die,” Ms. Fujikawa said. “It felt like the whole structure was collapsing.”

Japan's top telecommunications company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. set up an emergency phone line and a special Internet site for people to leave messages for families and friends to inform them of their safety.

Up to 90 per cent of calls were being restricted to protect telecom equipment from getting damaged from overload.

Tokyo commuter trains and subways, as well as the superfast bullet-trains, all shut down, according to East Japan Railway Co. A handful of subway lines resumed service were back up, but only after six hours. — AP