A strong earthquake struck northern Japan on Saturday, shaking buildings even in Tokyo and triggering a tsunami warning for part of the north coast. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury.
The US geological survey put power at 7.0 magnitude and depth at 54 kilometers (33.5 miles). The shaking began just before 6:10 p.m.
The quake was off the coast of Miyagi prefecture in the rugged northeast of the country, which was severely damaged during the huge earthquake and tsunami of 2011, which left more than 18,000 dead.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency issued a warning for a tsunami up to 1 meter (yard) high for Miyagi Prefecture immediately after the earthquake, but lifted it about 90 minutes later. The tsunami could have already reached parts of the Miyagi coast, Japanese public television NHK said.
Officials there said there were no immediate reports of damage.
The strong issue caused a temporary disruption in some areas and suspended bullet train services in the area, NHK said.
The nuclear regulator said no anomalies were detected at the region’s nuclear power plants, including the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered crises in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Akira Wakimoto, a crisis management official in Tome City in Miyagi Prefecture, said he was in his apartment when the quake struck and felt his room shake for a long time.
In a coastal town of Ofunato, Shotaro Suzuki, a hotel employee, said there was a temporary outage and that the elevators stopped for a short time, but the electricity was restored and there were no other problems.
“Our guests seemed worried at first, but they all went back to their rooms, and our facility seems fine,” (asterisk), Suzuki told NHK.
In mid-February, another strong earthquake in the region killed one person and left more than 180 injured, although most were minor. The quake damaged roads, train lines and thousands of homes. It also caused minor damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
A spokesman for the Japan Meteorological Agency, Noriko Kamaya, told a news conference that Saturday’s quake was considered a replica of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake in 2011. Kamaya urged people to be careful and stay away. of the coastline due to possible big waves.