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Japan New Year’s Day earthquake: where was the epicentre and how strong was it?
Calls for evacuation as well as a major tsunami warning have already come in for coastal areas as a earthquakes hit Japan.
A series of major earthquakes have hit central Japan with the Prime Minister already calling for an evacuation of coastal areas, reports say.
Tsunami alerts were triggered after a series of earthquakes, one with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6, hit Japan’s west coast.
Blackouts and burst water mains have been reported on the the coast of Ishikawa and traffic is said to be disrupted due to cracks in the roads.
FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES OF THE JAPAN EARTHQUAKE
Japanese public broadcasters switched to emergency programming, with NHK TV saying the water could reach as high as 5 meters, according to the Associated Press reported. People have been urged to flee to high land or a top of a nearby building. Calls have already been made to prepare residents for further quakes.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency have published a map of all affected areas and have announced that “major tsunami warnings are currently in effect for coastal regions of Japan”.
Where was the epicentre of the earthquake?
Noto, on the coast of the Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas were alerted shortly after 4pm local time (2:00a.m. ET / 11:00p.m. PT) and flood warnings were issued shortly after. An evacuation has also taken place in Russia, as authorities have issued a tsunami alert for the western coast of Sakhalin.
Back in 2011, Japan suffered an earthquake that devastated the country, 72 km east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted 6 minutes and had catastrophic effects, with almost 20,000 deaths confirmed.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.