A strong earthquake hit eastern Japan on late Wednesday night, killing at least four people and injuring over 100 people. Millions of homes went into complete darkness because of the power cut. The preliminary reports say that the earthquake was of 7.4 magnitudes.
The earthquake hit off the coast of Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, a region that was devastated 11 years ago by a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami, that had resulted in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster, which was the worst nuclear disaster after the Chernobyl incident of 1986.
A tsunami advisory was issued after Wednesday’s quake by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, but was lifted on Thursday morning. Later on, Fumio Kishida, the Japanese Prime Minister said that no abnormalities had been found in any of the nuclear power plants.
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said that the quake hit at a depth of 36 miles (60 kilometers) below the sea.
According to the Meteorological Agency, an 8-inch high tsunami was noted along the coastline of Miyagi prefecture, about an hour after the quake hit.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a press conference that because of the earthquake, a bullet train was derailed near Fukushima but no injuries were reported. According to some reports, around 78 people were trapped in the bullet train for around four hours after the train derailed, but all were safe and escaped uninjured.
The injured have been taken to hospitals in the Soma city of Fukushima. Tokyo Electric Power said that electricity has been completely restored in all of Tokyo.
The Meteorological Agency on Thursday asked the public to remain vigilant for more seismic activities in the next few days. Masaki Nakamura, an official in Japan’s Meteorological Agency, requested people in the affected areas to stay away from the coast and not to enter the sea until the tsunami advisories have been rolled back.
The Japan earthquake of 2011 was of 9.1 magnitudes, that is, around 63 times stronger, and released around 500 times more energy than Wednesday’s quake.
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