Japan marks 30th anniversary of deadly Kobe quake

Kobe, Japan: Thousands of people marked on Friday the 30th anniversary of an earthquake that claimed more than 6,400 lives and levelled much of the Ja...

Kobe, Japan: Thousands of people marked on Friday the 30th anniversary of an earthquake that claimed more than 6,400 lives and levelled much of the Japanese city of Kobe.

The 7.2-magnitude quake on January 17, 1995, sparked a major review of quake preparedness in the island nation that suffers about one fifth of the world's most powerful tremors.

Mourners observed a moment of silence before dawn at 5:46 am, the exact time that the quake -- Japan's second deadliest since World War II -- struck the port city.

"Whenever I see someone who looks like one of them, I feel it might be one of them," a man who lost his mother and sister in the disaster told public broadcaster NHK.

"I've been living like this for 30 years," he said.