Tokyo rocked by 6.1-magnitude earthquake as tremors cause buildings to sway

TOKYO has been rocked by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake causing buildings to sway. The tremor struck at 10.41pm local time and also led to trains being stopped in Japan’s capital city. But there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries and officials said there was no danger of a tsunami. Japan’s Meteorological Agency said […]

TOKYO has been rocked by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake causing buildings to sway.

The tremor struck at 10.41pm local time and also led to trains being stopped in Japan’s capital city.

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The quake caused buildings to sway in Tokyo[/caption]

But there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries and officials said there was no danger of a tsunami.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the quake was centred in Chiba prefecture, just east of Tokyo, at a depth of 48 miles.

NHK public television showed a sign hanging from the ceiling in its office swaying violently.

Power lines shook in Tokyo’s Suginami district.

Shinkansen super express trains in and out of Tokyo were temporarily halted, NHK said.

Video taken in the busy downtown districts of Shibuya and Shinjuku showed cars moving and people walking on the streets as usual.

New Prime Minister Fumio Kishida posted a message on Twitter urging people to check the latest information and take action to protect your lives.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas.

The country accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami.

Those events triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl a quarter of a century earlier.

The tsunami damaged the backup generators at the plant Fukushima Dai-ichi site in northern Japan.

All three of reactors that were operating were successfully shutdown, but the loss of power caused the cooling systems to fail with in the first few days afterwards.

The government was forced to declare an 20-km evacation zone and nearly 230,000 residents had to flee

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Tokyo with Mount Fuji in the background[/caption]