16 hours ago
3
Key events
An aerial image shows the damaged Aeon mall after an earthquake in Kashima, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan.
No damage or safety issues at Sendai nuclear plant after quake - IAEA
The UN nuclear watchdog said that Japan’s nuclear regulation authority has informed it that there is no damage or safety issues at the Sendai nuclear power plant after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture.
“The IAEA will continue to monitor the situation,” said the watchdog in a post on X.
Japan’s prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, has confirmed that the government has assembled an “Emergency Assembly Team” to tackle the disaster.
She wrote on social media:
At around 4:27 p.m. today, an earthquake with its epicenter in the Kumamoto region of Kumamoto Prefecture occurred, and strong shaking with a maximum seismic intensity of 7 was observed in Uki City and Makigawa Town in Kumamoto Prefecture.
In connection with this earthquake, a tsunami advisory has been issued for Ariake Bay and Yatsushiro Sea, and tsunamis of about 1 meter are expected. Please refrain from approaching the coast.
As the government, immediately after the earthquake, we have established the Prime Minister’s Office Countermeasures Room in the Prime Minister’s Office Crisis Management Center, and convened the “Emergency Assembly Team” consisting of bureau chief-level officials from relevant ministries and agencies, and are fully engaged in grasping the damage situation and emergency disaster response measures such as lifesaving and rescue.
A spokesperson for the Japan Meteorological Agency said that it had withdrawn an earlier tsunami warning:
This earthquake occurred inland, and no tsunami activity has been observed so far. For this reason, we hope to lift the tsunami advisory at a relatively early stage, depending on future sea level conditions.
The Japanese government issued emergency earthquake warnings for Kumamoto, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Fukuoka, Saga, Oita, and Miyazaki prefectures, all on the country’s southern Kyushu island.
Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “ring of fire”.
Japan’s precarious location means it experiences about 1,500 earthquakes a year, many of which are mild but others are deadly.
In March 2011, a devastating earthquake and tsunami killed over 18,000 people and triggered a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said on Tuesday that no abnormalities were reported at nuclear power plants after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck earlier today.
People trapped in a shopping centre after earthquake hits southern island in Japan
People are trapped inside a shopping mall that was damaged in a major earthquake today in southwestern Japan, emergency services have said.
In “Kashima town, a shopping complex’s second floor collapsed, leaving many people trapped inside,” the local fire department said in a statement.
Earlier, police said they had received reports of what sounded like an explosion at the Aeon Mall outlet in the Kumamoto region, but were unable to supply additional information on damage or any casualties.
The reports come after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit southern Japan.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the earthquake had a depth of 10km and hit the country’s Kumamoto prefecture at 4.27pm local time (8.27am BST).
The tremor measured at the highest possible level seven on Japan’s Shindo scale of shaking, the agency said. While the agency initially issued a tsunami warning for a wave measuring one metre, it has since rescinded that.
In 2016, Kumamoto was hit by two devastating earthquakes – one of magnitude 6.5, followed by one of magnitude 7.3 two days later – which killed 273 people and injured over 2,800 others.
English (US) ·