TOKYO – A 7.3-magnitude earthquake off Japan’s Fukushima has injured more than 100 people, said authorities today, nearly 10 years after the eastern region was hit by a huge quake that sparked a tsunami and nuclear meltdown.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said no casualties have been reported after the late-night quake, which did not trigger a tsunami warning.
“We have received reports on many injuries in the Fukushima and Miyagi regions. But so far, we have not received any reports on deaths,” he told an emergency cabinet meeting this morning.
The disaster agency said 114 injuries – six classed as “serious” – were reported in the region and here, where the quake was felt strongly just after 11pm yesterday.
Local media counted at least 104 reported injuries, from broken bones to cuts from shattered glass.
No abnormalities were reported at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which melted down in the wake of the March 2011 quake that triggered a towering tsunami and killed more than 18,000 people.
Japan’s meteorological agency said yesterday’s quake, which hit at a depth of 60km in the Pacific off Fukushima, is considered an aftershock of the massive tremor nearly a decade ago.
No significant damage was reported, but authorities are assessing the impact of a landslide on a highway, said government spokesman Katsunobu Kato, while aerial TV footage showed another landslide at a remote race circuit.
Kato warned residents about the possibility of strong aftershocks in the next week, and further landslides due to heavy rain.
“Particularly for the next two to three days, there might be very strong earthquakes.”
Emergency shelters
Water outages are affecting 4,800 households, he said, adding that Health Ministry staff and self-defence troops are heading to affected areas to deliver supply.
Some 950,000 homes lost power throughout the region, but electricity has been restored in most areas by this morning, according to a regional utility company.
Kato said there were more than 250 people at 173 emergency shelters in Fukushima and the surrounding regions this morning, and that social-distancing measures are in place.
Pfizer, whose Covid-19 vaccine is set to become the first to be approved in Japan later today, has told the government that the quake did not affect facilities storing the jabs, he added.
Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
The country is regularly hit by quakes, and has strict construction regulations intended to ensure buildings can withstand strong tremors.
In September 2018, a powerful 6.6-magnitude quake rocked Hokkaido, triggering landslides, collapsing houses and killing more than 40 people. – AFP, February 14, 2021
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