UPDATE: Chaos after TWO earthquakes hit Japan

UPDATE: Chaos after TWO earthquakes hit Japan.

CHAOS has followed two HUGE earthquakes which hit Japan on Wednesday, March 16 (March 17 local time). Reports of a death, injuries, a high-speed train derailment, loss of power at a nuclear plant and mini tsunamis have followed.

Two huge quakes hit just two minutes apart off the coasts of Fukushima and Miyagi in the northwest of the country, the biggest of which was a  7.3 magnitude earthquake.

The other was measured as a 6.4 magnitude quake.

The 7.3 magnitude quake struck at 23:36 local time (14:36 GMT) on Thursday, March 17, at a depth of 60 kilometres, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), which triggered a tsunami advisory warning for up to a meter (3-foot) in parts of Miyagi and Namie, small towns in Fukushima Prefecture.

Following the quake, which reached as far as Japan’s capital city of Toyko, news of the derailment of a high-speed bullet train travelling up to 200 miles per hour was reported following the tremors, as reported by Japanese news agency NHK.

The Sun reported that the train was between Fukushima and the city of Shiroishi less than 19 miles away when it derailed. Reports suggest that there were around 100 passengers on board, although according to East Japan Railways, no one has been reported as injured.

Sadly though, there have been reports that the earthquake caused at least one fatality, while it injured 69 people, as reported by NHK citing officials in the city of Soma in Fukushima Prefecture.

Nuclear regulators said a fire alarm went off at Fukushima’s Dai-ichi nuclear plant, and that water pumps used to cool spent fuel pool at the Dai-ni plant were halted, although there was no imminent danger and have since been restored, according to Bloomberg.

Also, the Tokyo Electric Power Company reported that around 2 million buildings in its service area had lost electricity for a few hours following the quake.

Piso 8 de un edificio en Tokio en medio del terremoto de Fukushima, Japón

8th floor of a building in Tokyo amid Fukushima earthquake, Japan pic.twitter.com/5YDmQy8mIm

— astianmi (@astianmi) March 16, 2022

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