RPT-UPDATE 5-Northern Japan quake kills 3, more missing

(Repeats to fix typo in byline)

(Updates with revised magnitude, injured toll, adds quotes)

By Toru Hanai

OSHU, Japan, June 14 (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck rural northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least three people, officials and televisions said. Several others were trapped in hotspring resort hit by a landslide.

The quake, at 8:43 a.m. (2343 GMT Friday), was centred in Iwate, a sparsely populated area around 300 km (190 miles) north of Tokyo. Dozens of aftershocks also jolted the area.

"I was outside and I wanted to rush back to the store, but I couldn't move because it was shaking," a liquor store owner told Fuji TV. "Broken bottles are all over the store, and there's a smell of alcohol everywhere."

One of the people killed was caught in a landslide, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters. A second was killed as he ran out of a building and was run over by a car. NHK said another man was killed at a dam construction site hit by falling rocks.

At least four people were buried in a landslide at a hot spring resort in Kurihara city in hard-hit Miyagi prefecture, TV Asahi reported, though it was unknown whether they were dead.

Three more were missing at a work site after another landslide in Kurihara, Kyodo news agency said, adding that more than 100 people were hurt.