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IWAKI, JAPAN (REUTERS) – A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck the eastern coast of Japan on Saturday (February 13), shaking buildings and causing widespread blackouts, but there appeared to be no major damage and no no tsunami warning. issued.
The epicenter was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60 kilometers, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
It struck at 11:08 p.m. local time (10:08 p.m. Singapore time) and shook buildings in the capital Tokyo and elsewhere.
No tsunami warning had been issued, the weather agency said.
A Reuters cameraman in Fukushima said his hotel room on the 10th floor shook heavily for some time. A man at the hotel was taken to the hospital after falling and hitting his head on a door, the Reuters cameraman said.
Although injured, the man was still able to walk, the cameraman said.
Television footage also showed broken glass on shop fronts, while Kyodo news reported a dozen injuries, though none appeared to be immediately serious.
Some 950,000 families were initially without power, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said in a briefing by public broadcaster NHK. The blackouts appeared to be concentrated in northeast Japan, including Fukushima and neighboring prefectures.
There were no irregularities at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants, or the Kahiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, said the owner of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings.
The utility company also said there were no changes in radiation levels around its plants.
Kato said there were no irregularities at the Onagawa nuclear facilities.
The earthquake occurred in Fukushima just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, which devastated northeastern Japan and triggered a massive tsunami that led to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century: one centered on Daiichi’s facilities.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the most seismically active areas in the world. Japan accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
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