Japan, 7.5 magnitude earthquake shakes the country: alarm raised

Great fear in Japan, where a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, which occurred on the west coast, shook Ishikawa prefecture, in the center of the island of Honsu, one of the largest in the Asian country. The earthquake occurred at around 8:10 am Italian time, corresponding to 4:10 pm local time. The affected area is located approximately 500 kilometers from Tokyo. Authorities immediately asked people to leave the coast of the affected area and issued a tsunami warning, which was also issued in the far east of Russia and Korea. Fortunately, after a few hours, the “major tsunami warning”, with the prediction of waves of up to three meters in an area 300 kilometers wide from the epicenter of the earthquake, was disqualified. However, the number of victims remains high in terms of damage. In Ishikawa Prefecture, some houses collapsed and more than 30,000 people are without electricity, mainly in the cities of Wajima, Noto and Suzu, the most affected.

According to initial information provided by Japanese media, there are six people missing, while two people were found dead of a heart attack under the rubble of a collapsed residential building. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office said no damage was detected to nuclear power plants in the affected area, while there were problems with water supplies in several locations in Ishikawa Prefecture and disruptions to Internet service as well as infrastructure. damaged road structures. The Japanese government has sent 1,000 soldiers to areas hit by the earthquake to help rescue teams and another 8,500 could be deployed in the coming hours. Japan is an extremely earthquake-prone nation and today’s events immediately brought to mind what happened in March 2011, when a devastating earthquake followed by a tsunami caused the nuclear accident at the Fukushima power station. Aftershocks are expected to hit the area where the earthquake occurred in the coming days.