“We are still assessing the extent of injuries and property damage, but I have been informed that there are already several casualties,” said S. Takaichi.
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“In some areas, power supply was cut off, fires broke out, roads and bridges were damaged, buildings collapsed,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Japan Meteorological Agency canceled the tsunami warning.
The warning was removed from the agency’s website less than two hours after the 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, at 16:27 local time (10:27 Lithuanian time), an underground shock on Kyushu Island reached the highest possible seventh level on Japan’s “Shindo” scale.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority, in turn, reported that no disruptions were reported at nuclear power plants following the earthquake that shook southwestern Japan on Tuesday.
The local utility company Kyushu Electric Power reported that the three nuclear reactors operating in the region continued normal operations during the earthquake.
On June 25, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake occurred in northern Japan, but it caused no casualties and did not cause significant damage.
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Japan is one of the most active seismic zones in the world, located on four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”
The archipelago, home to about 125 million people, typically experiences hundreds of underground shocks annually. About 18% of all earthquakes worldwide occur in Japan.
The vast majority of them are weak, although the damage they cause varies depending on location and depth beneath the Earth’s surface where they originate.
The country is still haunted by memories of the powerful 9.0 magnitude underwater earthquake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that claimed or displaced about 18,500 lives and caused a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
On April 20 this year, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck northern Japan, injuring at least 10 people and causing tall buildings to sway in Tokyo.
This prompted officials to issue a special recommendation warning of an increased risk of earthquakes of magnitude 8 or stronger.
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A week later, this recommendation was withdrawn.
