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| Reuters/Reuters - Passengers gather after train services were suspended following an earthquake at Sendai station in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, in this photo taken by Kyodo December 7, 2012. REUTERS/Kyodo |
TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong quake centered off northeastern Japan shook buildings as far away as Tokyo on Friday and triggered a one-meter tsunami in an area devastated by last year's Fukushima disaster, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or serious damage.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, the U.S. Geological Survey said, adding that there was no risk of a widespread tsunami.
The March 2011
earthquake and following tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and
triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years when the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant was destroyed, leaking radiation into the sea and air.
Workers at the plant were ordered to move to higher ground after Friday's quake. Tokyo Electric Power Co, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, reported no irregularities at its nuclear plants.
All but two of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors have been idled since the Fukushima disaster as the government reviews safety.
The quake measured a
"lower 5" in Miyagi prefecture on Japan's scale of one to seven,
meaning there might be some damage to roads and houses that are less
quake resistant.
The scale measures
the amount of shaking and in that sense gives a better idea of possible
damage than the magnitude. The quake registered a 4 in Tokyo.
The one-meter
tsunami hit at Ishinomaki, in Miyagi, at the centre of the devastation
from the March 2011 disaster. All Miyagi trains halted operations and
Sendai airport, which was flooded by the tsunami last year, closed its
runway.
"I was in the centre of the city the very moment the earthquake struck. I immediately jumped into the car and started running away towards the mountains. I'm still hiding inside the car," said Ishinomaki resident Chikako Iwai.
"...I have the
radio on and they say the cars are still stuck in the traffic. I'm
planning to stay here for the next couple of hours."
Last year's quake,
which measured 9.0, triggered fuel-rod meltdowns at Fukushima, causing
radiation leakage, contamination of food and water and mass evacuations.
Much of the area is still deserted.
"Citizens are now escaping to designated evacuation centers and moving to places on higher ground," office worker Naoki Ara said in Soma, 30 km (18 miles) from the Fukushima-Daiichi plant.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda cancelled campaigning in Tokyo ahead of a December 16 election and was on his way back to his office, but there was no immediate plan to hold a special cabinet meeting.
Public spending on quake-proofing buildings is a big election issue.
"It shook for a
long time here in Tokyo, are you guys all right?" posted Eriko Hamada,
enquiring about the safety of her friends.
Phone lines were overloaded and it was difficult to contact residents of Miyagi.
"Owing to the recent earthquake, phone lines are very busy, please try again later," the phone operator said.
The yen rose
against the dollar and the euro on the news, triggering some safe-haven
inflows into the Japanese currency.
(Additional
reporting by Tomasz Janowski, Leika Kihara and Aaron Sheldrick; Writing
by Nick Macfie; Editing by Ken Wills)
