More than 150 people injured after strong earthquake hits Japan

More than 150 people were injured in Japan when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake shook Fukushima province late Saturday, local media reported, with the tremors felt strongly in the capital Tokyo over 200 kilometres away.

At least 96 people were injured in the prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi and in the Kanto region which includes Tokyo, Japanese television broadcaster NHK reported.

The epicentre of the quake, initially measured at a magnitude of 7.1 and then upgraded by the Japanese authorities, was located in the sea 72 kilometres east-north-east of the town of Namie.

There was no danger of a tsunami, the weather authorities said, after the tremor struck at 11:08 pm (1408 GMT).

Early fears of damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was hit by a stronger quake and tsunami that devastated the area 10 years ago, were allayed by the plant’s operator Tepco.

There were no irregularities at the power plant, news agency Kyodo reported on Saturday, citing Tepco.

There were also no reports of damage from other nuclear power plants currently shut down in the region.

A million households were reported to have temporarily lost power due to the tremors, including hundreds of thousands in the Tokyo area.

In March 2011, Fukushima and other areas in the north-east of the country were hit by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami, leading the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to suffer core meltdowns. At that time, more than 18,500 people died in the floods.