An earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck northeastern Japan last night, killing at least four people, injuring more than 200 and leaving millions without power.
A bullet train carrying about 100 passengers was derailed, although there were no reports of any injuries. Derailments are very rare because bullet trains are equipped with automatic braking technology linked directly to earthquake early warning systems, bypassing the driver.
The powerful tremor, just after 11.30pm, occurred 37 miles under the seabed off the coast of Fukushima but shook buildings hundreds of miles away in the capital, Tokyo. The quake measured a “strong 6” on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, the second-highest level, in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures. People can be knocked off their feet at that intensity of shaking.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit two minutes before the main quake, which was followed by a number of aftershocks.
By Thursday afternoon in Japan, 209 people across 12 prefectures had been treated for injuries. Cracks were found in a motorway in Miyagi, while local media carried pictures of a collapsed house and a temple in Fukushima.
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A tsunami warning was issued for Fukushima and Miyagi shortly after the quake, but only small waves of about eight inches in height were recorded less than an hour later.
Cooling systems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, which is still dealing with the aftermath of meltdowns caused by a tsunami on March 11, 2011, were temporarily left without power. Normal operations were resumed shortly afterwards and no abnormalities or spikes in radiation were recorded, according to Tokyo Electric Power Co.
More than 2.2 million households across the east and northeast of Japan, including about 700,000 in the capital, were left without electricity. Power had been restored to most homes by Thursday morning.
The government set up an emergency task force immediately after the earthquake and Fumio Kishida, the prime minister, said on Thursday that the Japanese self-defence forces had been deployed in Fukushima to deliver water to areas where supplies had been cut.
The earthquake came five days after the anniversary of the 2011 disaster, which claimed almost 20,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands homeless. A quake of similar strength to Wednesday’s occurred off the shore of Fukushima just after 11pm on February 13, 2021, killing one person and injuring more than 180.
