An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 rocked a wide area on the Sea of
Details about the damage caused by the
No significant abnormalities were reported at nuclear plants in Ishikawa's Shika, where the quake registered a maximum 7 on the country's seismic intensity scale, or in nearby Niigata or Fukui prefectures after the quake, according to the Secretariat of the
The
It was the first time such a special warning had been issued since the 2011 magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami that devastated areas of northeastern
The deaths of four people were confirmed by the Ishikawa prefectural government early Tuesday.
A fire broke out in an old town with wooden houses in Wajima. There were reports of a building and multiple houses collapsing in the city, local firefighters said.
"It looked as if more than 10 buildings were on fire," a man living in Wajima said, adding that he could see a black plume of smoke rising from a marketplace around 500 meters away.
"I was unable to remain standing from the shaking. It was an intensity I had never experienced before," he said.
Another resident saw black smoke and heard explosions near the Wajima Asaichi food market district.
Some 30 people were injured due to the earthquake in Ishikawa and other prefectures, local authorities said. The ceiling collapsed at a pachinko parlor in Toyama Prefecture, injuring eight people, two of them seriously, the prefectural government said.
In Ishikawa, approximately 32,500 homes lost power.
The quake was felt in a wide area from
The earthquake's focus was around 30 kilometers east-northeast of Wajima, with a provisional depth of 16 km, according to the weather agency.
A quake at the maximum level of 7 on the Japanese intensity scale is described as making it impossible for people to remain standing. Such a temblor was last observed in 2018 in
The quake and aftershocks disrupted public transportation to and from the affected areas, with JR East temporarily suspending the operations of all shinkansen bullet trains on the Tohoku,
Prime Minister
The agency warned that earthquakes with a seismic intensity of around 7 could occur in Monday's hard-hit areas over the next week, especially over the next few days.
A total of more than 97,000 people in nine prefectures were instructed to evacuate, according to the
About 1,000 people evacuated to an
The SDF sent members on a disaster relief mission in response to a request by Ishikawa Gov.
Services on JR Central's Tokaido Shinkansen line, which connects
North and
The Russian government issued a tsunami warning for the western coastal region of Sakhalin in the Far East following the Japanese earthquake, the Interfax news agency said.
==Kyodo
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