Major tsunami warning issued after 7.4 magnitude quake strikes Japan’s Ishikawa

Waves as high as 1.2 meters were observed after a series of strong quakes struck Japan's western coast on Monday afternoon

Tokyo: A series of strong earthquakes with major ones measured at up to 7.6 magnitude have struck the central Japanese prefecture of Ishikawa on Monday, with tsunami warnings issued, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The major quake hitting Ishikawa, a coastal prefecture on the Island of Honshu, registered an intensity of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7, with temblors felt in multiple regions of the Asian country, according to the weather agency, Xinhua news agency reported.

The weather agency said the latest major temblor occurred at 4:10 p.m. local time (0710 GMT) at a shallow depth. The temblor’s epicenter was located in Ishikawa’s Noto region, at Wajima east-northeast 30 km at 37.5 degrees north latitude and 137.2 degrees east longitude.

A major tsunami warning has been issued by the JMA for Noto region, urging people to evacuate immediately, following tsunami warnings for Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa prefectures of the Japan Sea side of the country. Japanese public broadcaster NHK has warned of torrents of water of up to 5 meters.

Waves as high as 1.2 meters were observed after a series of strong quakes struck Japan’s western coast on Monday afternoon, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Earlier, the weather agency issued tsunami warnings for a broad swath of the country’s western coast, including Ishikawa, Fukui, Niigata, Toyama, Yamagata and other prefectures, following the earthquakes, Xinhua news agency reported.