Blizzard knocks out power in Japan
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-22 15:29

Record snowfall has blanketed large parts of Japan, leaving more than one million people without power, disrupting hospitals and holding up land and air transport.

More than 1,000 traffic lights were not functioning in the prefecture after the fresh wave of winter weather, which has so far claimed more than 10 lives throughout Japan, Tohoku Electric Power said.

The bullet train was stopped in sections and other rail services cancelled in Niigata, with television footage showing stranded trains at blanketed stations.

Around 75,000 bullet train passengers were affected by delays in central and western Japan, Jiji Press news agency said.

Niigata hospitals cancelled some operations due to the blackout with patients given extra blankets for warmth.

"We contacted hospitals that accept emergency patients in the city and found many of them switching to private electricity generation," a Niigata municipal official said.

"This means electricity is used for the most urgent operations and not for heating," he said.

A blackout also hit up to 690,000 households in western Japan, where snowfall is rare in winter, with power largely restored by early afternoon. Pedestrians trudged through snow shielding themselves with umbrellas in the historic city of Kyoto.

More than 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled Thursday, public broadcaster NHK said.

Southern city Kagoshima saw 11 centimeters (36.3 inches) of snow by early Thursday, the heaviest in 88 years for the month of December.