A 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Thursday struck Japan's southern region, triggering a tsunami warning. As per the Japan Meteorological Agency the earthquake struck 20 kilometres northeast of Nichinan.
Reports said the earthquake was initially rated Magnitude 6.9 and was revised to 7.1. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said officials were assessing possible injuries or serious damage, though none were immediately reported. He urged residents of the affected region to stay away from the coastline.
The tsunami warning was activate 7:50 GMT. Authorities are monitoring the situation closely and are bracing for a tsunami.
Visuals on social media show large-scale tremors and people rushing to evacuate amid the chaos. Furthermore, Japan's Miyazaki region on Kyushu island has been put on high alert for a tsunami wave of at least one metre high.
While local reports have cited 7.6 as the scale of the earthquake, as per the data issued by the JPA and the United States Geological Survey confirmed the earthquake to be at 7.1 on the Richter Scale.
As per NHK Japan, tsunami advisories were issued for the following areas -
Ehime Pref's Uwa Sea coast
Kochi
Bungo Strait coast
Miyazaki
Eastern Kagoshima
Tanegashima and Yakushima Islands
The Nuclear Regulation Authority said all 12 nuclear reactors, including three which are currently operating, on Kyushu and Shikoku remained safe.
Japan's NHK public television said there were reports of broken windows at the Miyazaki airport near the epicentre.
Japan , which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. The Pacific Ring Of Fire is the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean.
In January this year, an earthquake in Japan's north-central region of Noto left more than 240 people dead.
In March 2011, the north-eastern coast of Japan was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in the country. It triggered a tsunami up to 30 metres high that washed up to 5 kilometres inland, leaving over 19,000 people dead.
