An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 on the Richter Scale hit the coast of Fukushima in northern Japan on Wednesday night, killing four people, the Associated Press reported.
A small tsunami also hit the shore on Wednesday night. However, a low-risk advisory that had been issued, was lifted by the Japan Meteorological Agency early on Thursday. According to the agency, tsunami waves of 30 centimetres or 11 inches reached the Ishinomaki shore, located 390 km northeast of Tokyo.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Parliament on Thursday that four people had died due to the earthquake and 97 others were injured. One of the deceased was identified as a man in his 60s living in Soma city. He died after falling from the second floor of his house, Kishida said. Another was a man in his 70s who panicked and died due to a cardiac arrest.
The Japan Meteorological Agency had initially said the magnitude of the quake was 7.3. Later on Thursday, it upgraded the figures and identified the epicentre of the earthquake to be 56 km to 60 km below sea level.
Local electricity providers said that around 7,00,000 homes in Tokyo and 1,56,000 in Japan’s northeast region had lost power immediately after the earthquake hit. Power supplies were later restored, BBC reported.
A bullet train in Fukushima city was also derailed during the disaster. Nuclear authorities said that no abnormalities had been detected at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant site, which is being decommissioned.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that the local authorities were still assessing the damage. “We are doing our utmost in rescue operations and putting people’s lives first,” he said, Associated Press reported.
Located in a seismically active zone, also known as the Ring of Fire, Japan frequently experiences powerful earthquakes.
Fukushima, located along Japan’s eastern Pacific coast, was hit by a devastating earthquake of magnitude 9 on the Richter scale and a subsequent tsunami in March 2011. The calamity resulted in the destruction of a nuclear plant’s power and cooling functions, contaminating the region with radioactive fallout. It was said to be the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl incident that occurred in April 1986 in Ukraine.
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