Photo/Illutration The first floor of a house is crushed after an earthquake recorded a seismic intensity of upper 5 in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on June 3. (Toshiyuki Hayashi)

A woman was seriously injured and buildings collapsed in Ishikawa Prefecture when the first earthquake with a seismic intensity of upper 5 since Jan. 6 rattled the disaster-stricken Noto Peninsula.

The quake struck at 6:31 a.m. on June 3 with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 and a focus about 14 kilometers deep, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The earthquake is believed to be connected to the deadly magnitude-7.6 temblor that devastated the Noto region on New Year’s Day.

A seismic intensity of upper 5 on the Japanese scale of 7 was measured in the cities of Wajima and Suzu in Ishikawa Prefecture. The intensity reached lower 5 in the town of Noto.

There was no tsunami from the earthquake, the agency said.

Since New Year’s Day, earthquakes with seismic intensities of 1 or higher have been registered around 1,850 times, including 12 at upper 5 that occurred in early January.

According to the town of Tsubata, a woman in her 60s was surprised by the jolt and broke her leg when she fell from her bed as she tried to seek shelter.

A man in his 20s in Namekawa in neighboring Toyama Prefecture bruised his head and hips when he fell while trying to flee.

According to the disaster prevention division of Wajima, the latest shaking toppled five additional buildings that were believed to have been seriously damaged in the Jan. 1 earthquake.

No injuries were reported from the collapsed buildings.

A woman who works for a company in the Oisemachi district of Wajima said she saw one of the destroyed buildings.

“The whole two-story building was tilted by the New Year’s Day earthquake. When I came to the office around 9 a.m., I saw the first floor of the building was completely crushed,” she said.

A 41-year-old fisherman in Suzu’s Misakimachi district said he felt the strong jolt when he and his family were about to eat breakfast at home.

He said with a tired look, “I thought, ‘Enough is enough.’”

He said that he and his wife held their crying 1-year-old baby and 2-year-old child and jumped out of the house.

The recently built house had withstood the New Year’s Day earthquake, but the latest quake apparently caused distortions that prevented windows from opening.

“When I thought that an earthquake happened again, I had no other feelings but anxiety,” the father said.

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