A strong earthquake centred off the coast of northeastern Japan shook buildings as far as Tokyo and led to a tsunami warning for coastal areas of the northeast, public broadcaster NHK said today.
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, the US Geological Survey said. That was revised from an earlier estimate of 7.4.
A warning for a one metre tsunami was issued for the coast of Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan, which was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11th, 2011.
NHK television broke off regular programming to warn that a strong earthquake was due to hit shortly before it struck.
Afterwards, the announcer repeatedly urged everyone near the coast to flee to higher ground.
The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that slammed into north-eastern Japan on March 11th last year killed or left missing some 19,000 people, devastating much of the coast.
All but two of Japan’s nuclear plants were shut down for checks after the earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
Immediately after today’s quake, there were no problems at any of the nuclear plants operated by Fukushima Dai-Ichi operator Tokyo Electric Power.
AP