At least 30 people were injured in relation to the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that hit northern Japan late on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi reported on Tuesday, calling for extreme precautions to be taken due to the possibility of a similar or larger earthquake in the coming days.
“So far we have received reports of 30 injuries and a fire in a home, and we continue working to assess the extent of the damage,” said the president upon her arrival at the Kantei, the headquarters of the central government in Tokyo, in statements to the press broadcast by the public broadcaster NHK.
Takaichi urged the population to remain prepared for potential evacuations such as the one in the last few hours, which specifically affected more than 20,000 people after meteorological authorities issued a tsunami warning that affected the Pacific coasts of the archipelago, where tide rises of up to 70 centimeters were observed.
More details: A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake shakes northeastern Japan
The earthquake occurred at 11:15 p.m. on Monday (2:15 p.m. GMT) in the sea off Aomori prefecture (northeast) with an epicenter 50 kilometers deep and a preliminary magnitude of 7.6, later revised to 7.5.
The earthquake reached level 6 on the 7-level Japanese seismic scale in the northeast of the territory, focused on measuring the agitation on the surface and its destructive potential.
Until early this Tuesday, at least 15 tremors of magnitude greater than 3 had occurred, including one of 6.4 at 6:52 (21:52 GMT on Monday), although the damage is still being assessed.
The authorities have activated a special alert due to the possibility of an earthquake of unusual magnitude occurring in the area in the coming days.
The Japanese archipelago had not experienced an earthquake of this magnitude since the 7.6 earthquake on New Year’s Day 2024 on the Noto Peninsula, a rural and aging area on the central coast of the Sea of Japan, in which several towns were severely devastated and around 400 people lost their lives.
Japan sits on the so-called Ring of Fire, one of the most active seismic zones in the world, and suffers earthquakes relatively frequently, so its infrastructure is specially designed to withstand tremors.
With information from EFE
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