Japan records 21 earthquakes of magnitude greater than 4 (in just 90 minutes)

O The strongest of the earthquakes had a magnitude of 7.6, according to the agency, which issued a tsunami warning. Initially this earthquake had been recorded at magnitude 7.4, but this was revised upwards.

Around 33,500 homes were left without electricity in the region where the earthquakes were recorded, several energy suppliers said.

The departments of Toyama, Ishikawa and Niigata, on the island of Honshu, are being affected by electricity cuts.

The Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has already appealed to the population to exercise maximum caution in the face of the tsunami warning.

“I want to emphasize that citizens must be very careful and we urge people residing in these places [abrangidos por avisos de tsunami] to try to leave”, said Fumio Kishida in statements to the press.

The Japanese meteorological agency recorded the earthquake on the Noto peninsula, in Ishikawa prefecture at 16:10 local time (07:10 in Lisbon), at a shallow depth, having recorded a strong aftershock at 16:40.

State television NHK TV warned of waves that could reach five meters along practically the entire western coast and called on the population to climb to elevated areas or to the top of buildings as quickly as possible.

The first waves, around 1.2 meters high, reached the city of Wajima, around 500 kilometers west of Tokyo, at 16:21 (7:21 in Lisbon), said HNK, which activated the programming of emergency.

Authorities warned that these first waves could be followed by much higher waves.

Other locations in Ishikawa or Niigata prefectures recorded tide increases of between 540 and 80 centimeters.

Japan is a country prone to earthquakes. In March 2011, a major earthquake followed by a tsunami left around 20,000 people dead and missing and caused a serious nuclear accident in Fukushima.

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