(Updates death toll §5-8)
by Tim Kelly, Satoshi Sugiyama and Sakura Murakami
Several earthquakes shook central Japan on Monday and led authorities to evacuate parts of the west coast, while power was cut to thousands of homes and flights and train services were disrupted.
Reaching up to a magnitude of 7.6, the earthquakes triggered waves of around 1 meter along parts of the Sea of Japan coast, and authorities said larger waves could follow .
North Korea, South Korea and Russia have also issued warnings to their populations.
The government has ordered the evacuation of more than 97,000 people in nine prefectures on the west coast of Japan’s main island, Honshu.
Local authorities and police, according to Japanese media, have confirmed the deaths of at least six people. This assessment is provisional, with rescue teams struggling to reach certain areas made difficult to access by the accumulation of debris.
According to NHK, at least one person died in a building collapse in Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture.
Kyodo News reported four more deaths in Ishikawa, citing the prefectural crisis management team, including a man and a woman in their 50s, a young boy and a man in his 70s.
Another man, aged 90, was pulled from the rubble of a building and taken to hospital, but was confirmed dead, the Asahi newspaper reported, citing police.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued tsunami warnings for the coastal prefectures of Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama earlier today.
A major tsunami warning – the first since the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan in March 2011 – was issued for Ishikawa, but it was later downgraded to the first level of alert, which involves waves that can reach a maximum height of 1 meter.
Some houses were destroyed and soldiers were dispatched to help with rescue operations, government spokesman Hayashi Yoshimasa told reporters, adding that authorities were still assessing the extent of the damage.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that he had asked search and rescue teams to do everything possible to save lives, even though access to quake-hit areas was difficult due to the blocked roads.
Other strong earthquakes could still occur in the coming days in the region, where seismic activity has been brewing for more than three years, warned Toshihiro Shimoyama, head of the JMA.
In comments made to the press shortly after the earthquake, the Prime Minister also warned residents to prepare for other disasters.
“Residents should remain alert for possible earthquakes and I urge residents in areas where tsunamis are expected to evacuate as soon as possible,” Fumio Kishida said.
“TSUNAMI! EVACUATE!”
After the first tremors, a bright yellow warning “Tsunami! Evacuate!” appeared on television screens, advising residents of certain areas of the coast to immediately evacuate their homes.
At least 30 buildings collapsed in Wajima, a town of around 30,000 known for its lacquerware, and fires ravaged several buildings.
Images broadcast by local media showed a building collapsing in a plume of dust in the coastal town of Suzu and a huge crack in a road in Wajima where panicked parents hugged their children. The quake also shook buildings in the capital Tokyo, about 500 km from Wajima on the opposite coast.
Nearly 32,000 homes were still without electricity in Ishikawa prefecture at the end of Monday, according to electricity supplier Hokuriku Electric Power, while very low temperatures are expected overnight in some regions.
According to electricity supplier Tohoku Electric Power, 700 homes are still without electricity in neighboring Niigata Prefecture.
Telecommunications operators also reported phone and internet outages in some areas.
Forty train lines and two high-speed rail services halted operations, while six expressways were closed and one of Ishikawa’s airports was forced to halt operations due to a crack in the airstrip, transport authorities said.
Japanese airline ANA flights heading to Toyama and Ishikawa had to turn back and Japan Airlines canceled most of its services to the Niigata and Ishikawa areas.
Japan’s nuclear regulator said no irregularities had been observed at nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan, including five active reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi and Takahama plants in Japan. Fukui Prefecture.
The Hokuriku Shika plant in Ishikawa, closest to the epicenter, had already shut down its two reactors before the earthquakes for routine inspections and saw no impact.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly, Satoshi Sugiyama, Kantaro Komiya, Sakura Murakami, Chang-Ran Kim and the Tokyo editorial team, with contributions from Nicoco Chan in Shanghai, written by John Geddie and Hugh Lawson; French version Nicolas Delame and Kate Entringer)