As many as six were injured on Thursday morning as an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 struck northeastern Japan registering a rare upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in the town of Hashikami, Aomori Prefecture. ‘No Tsunami warning was issued, the officials said’. Tokyo reportedly felt mild tremors. Emergency services were immediately displaced to the affected locations. Aerial intelligence gathering operations have begun the quake hit areas.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the epicenter was 50 kilometers deep off the coast of Iwate Prefecture. The city of Hachinohe in Aomori Prefecture registered a lower 6 while some cities in Iwate Prefecture registered an upper 5. Five including a woman in her 90s is said to have been injured respectively.
The Tohoku Shinkansen line halted operations earlier in the day, however most services were resumed by 1 p.m. Bullet train lines in Iwate and Aomori prefectures were also suspended but without an indication of service resumption.
No abnormalities were reported at the Higashidori or Onagawa nuclear power plants, located respectively in Aomori and Miyagi prefectures, or at the Fukushima Daiichi or Daini nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture, according to their operators.
Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that there was “no tsunami concern” and asked residents of the affected areas “to remain vigilant for the possibility of another earthquake of similar magnitude.” JMA officials in a media interaction warned those in areas most affected by the quake, particularly those living near the Japan Trench and Kuril Trench, to be on alert for future earthquakes for up to a week. Following a large quake, there’s a 10%-20% chance that another major quake can occur in the same area, especially in the following two to three days.
Meanwhile, in Venezuela 322 have reportedly died and 700 injured in the doublet earthquake that struck the country on Wednesday evening. The earthquake 39 seconds apart ripped of staircases, cracked down walls and brought down roofs of buildings. The international airport Simon Bolivar at Venezuela reported smoke after a roof crashed. The intensity of the quake is said to be the strongest in the century evident from the footages being shared over the internet.