TOKYO: A tsunami as high as one metre was reportedly forecast to hit islands in Japan’s far south on Monday (Apr 20) after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Taiwan.
National broadcaster NHK said waves were possible on several islands in the southern Okinawa chain after a very shallow quake centred on Yonaguni in the southwest, near Taiwan.
“We are issuing warnings via the radio,” Satoshi Shimoji of the Miyako City government told NHK. “We want residents to get as far as possible from the sea,” he said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said in a statement that “based on all the available data … there is no tsunami threat from this earthquake”.
Strict building codes and a long familiarity with the dangers mean that quakes that might cause devastation in other parts of the world are frequently uneventful in Japan.
However, occasional disasters prove exceptionally deadly, and more than 18,000 people were killed by a huge tsunami that smashed into the northeast coast in 2011 after a huge 9.0-magnitude earthquake……..
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Photo: AFP