TOKYO, February 14. /TASS/: The number of people injured as a result of Japan’s 7.3-magnitude earthquake on Saturday has reached 150, the country’s Kyodo agency announced on Sunday.
Earlier reports said 124 people were injured. Most of the injured were residents of the prefectures of Miyagi and Fukushima on the eastern coast of Japan’s largest island of Honshu, which bore the brunt of the disaster. The majority of victims were diagnosed with bruises sustained during falls.
On Saturday evening, a powerful earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean, off Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), it was initially estimated as a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, but later the figure was revised to 7.3. The tremors were felt in at least ten Japanese regions in northern, northeastern and central parts of the Honshu island, including Fukushima, Miyagi and the Tokyo area. The NWS warns that aftershocks may occur during the week, while so far at least 20 of them have been registered. Some scientists suggest that Saturday’s quake was a follow-up of the devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake that occurred at approximately the same area ten years ago, on March 11, 2011, causing a powerful tsunami and a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima-1 NPP.
The earthquake has caused massive power outages, more than a million homes have been left without power in the county’s northeast at once. At the same time, the Japanese nuclear facilities had sustained no damage in the disaster.
According to the country's largest railway provider, JR East, one of the high-speed train branches, connecting northeastern and northern Japan was damaged. It can take about ten days to restore traffic in this direction.
Japan’s Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi ordered to bring the Self-Defense Forces on high alert. Soldiers are ready to head to the regions at any moment to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake, which is currently being assessed. The country’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters the disaster had caused no major damage but called upon local residents to get ready for aftershocks. At the cabinet meeting on Sunday, he also admitted that there were many injured, but stressed that no deaths were reported to date.
