Earthquake in Japan: Tsunami warnings issued in Japan after powerful earthquake

World

A powerful earthquake struck central Japan on Monday, triggering tsunami warnings and evacuation orders in several prefectures, trapping people under collapsed buildings and disrupting electricity and mobile phone services in Ishikawa Prefecture, the quake’s epicenter, officials said and the Japanese public broadcaster.

The earthquake struck the Noto region around 4:10 p.m. and measured 7.6 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.5.

The quake was much weaker than the magnitude 8.9 earthquake that struck Japan in 2011 and caused a tsunami, killing thousands of people and damaging the Fukushima power plant, triggering a nuclear crisis.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said Monday’s earthquake had a very shallow depth, which generally makes earthquakes more dangerous, but first reports of authorities in Ishikawa Prefecture suggested that no major damage had been caused to “important facilities.”

An official from Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Agency said there were no signs of abnormalities at radioactivity monitoring stations at the Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa, on Japan’s west coast. A fire broke out in a transformer at the factory, but it was extinguished, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.

Mr Hayashi said there were six cases of people trapped under rubble in Ishikawa, but he could not say how many people were involved.

The meteorological service warned that aftershocks and tsunamis could last for up to a week and advised residents to be on their guard for at least two or three days.

The agency issued a major tsunami warning for the Noto Peninsula, which faces the Sea of Japan, and ordered residents to immediately move to higher ground. The service warned of waves up to five meters high in Noto and up to three meters high along Noto’s coasts. Sado Islandas well as in prefectures including Niigata and Toyama.