TOKYO, Dec 7 � A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake jolted northeastern Japan today, triggering a metre-high tsunami and shaking buildings in Tokyo that forced thousands of people to flee their homes, more than a year after a similar disaster slammed the region leaving 20,000 people killed or missing, reports PTI.
So far, there were no reports of injuries in quake-hit areas, the National Police Agency said.
However, public television broadcaster NHK reported that a 75-year-old woman fell and was injured while evacuating to flee from the tsunami and added that a child was also injured in a Sendai city.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 and struck in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Miyagi prefecture at 5:18 pm (1348 IST), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Its epicentre was 240 km off the Pacific coast of Miyagi at a depth of 10 kilometres. The quake was felt in Iwate, Miyagi, Aomori, Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures.
The one-metre high tsunami reached Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture at 6:02 pm local time after the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a
tsunami warning for wide areas along the Pacific coast, Kyodo news agency reported.
