Strong earthquake jolts central Japan

A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 struck off the coast of Mie Prefecture, part of the Kansai region on the main Honshu island of Japan, the weather agency said today, although no tsunami warning has been issued, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the temblor was relatively shallow at a depth of just 10km, with the epicentre located at 33.4 degrees north latitude and 136.4 degrees east longitude, and struck at 11.39am.

While local media broadcast pictures of shaking buildings, the weather agency said that no tsunami warning had been issued following the quake, which registered level 4 on Japan's seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7.

As of 12 noon there had been no reports of injury or damage to buildings or other infrastructure, or disruption to transport networks, Xinhua said.

Mie Prefecture has some 1,000km of Pacific coastline and while commonly regarded as being in Kansai, is also in the Tokai region of Japan.

– Bernama