Fears of a major nuclear disaster eased today after an explosion at a stricken power plant.
The dramatic blast tore through the building housing a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi site but did not damage the core, a spokesman for the Japanese government said.
Footage on Japanese television showed the walls of one building at the site plant had crumbled, leaving only a skeletal metal frame block standing. Puffs of smoke were seen spewing out of the plant.
But Yukio Edano said the metal container sheltering the nuclear reactor was not affected and the radiation around the plant did not rise after the blast and was now decreasing.
Pressure and heat had been building at the nuclear reactor since an earthquake and tsunami on Friday caused its cooling system to fail.
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The government ordered people within a 12 mile radius of the plant in Fukushima to evacuate the area.
Tokyo Power Electric Co, the utility company that runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant, said four workers suffered fractures and bruises in the explosion and were being treated at a hospital.
“We have confirmed that the walls of this building were what exploded and it was not the reactor’s container that exploded,” Mr Edano added.
The problems afflicting several nuclear power plants that normally supply power to Tokyo prompted warnings of potentially widespread power cuts in the capital later this evening. Shoppers have already swept clean the shelves of many supermarkets in a panic-buying of provisions including food and candles.
People at major railway stations in central Tokyo were openly discussing the merits of heading further south – out of the capital and away from the threatened dangers of a severe radiation leak from Fukushima.
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Yesterday’s quake hit at 2.46pm (5.46am GMT) local time, unleashing a tsunami that reached heights of more than 20ft and crashed into the eastern coast of Japan. The quake was followed by at least 12 powerful aftershocks,
It struck at a depth of six miles (10km) about 80 miles (125km) off the eastern coast, about 240 miles (380km) north east of Tokyo.