Tokyo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Three dead, 100 wounded, some of them seriously, and 12 missing: this is the toll of a violent earthquake that at 8:45 local time this morning shook the northeast of Japan. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicentre of the earthquake, which registered 7.2 on the Richter scale, was in the prefecture of Akita, 100 kilometres north of Sendai, and took place 10 kilometres beneath the surface. The vibrations also shook buildings in cities near the epicentre, and were so strong that they were also felt in the capital of Tokyo, 500 kilometres away. A representative of Japan's geological agency has warned the population of the danger of new shocks, and the collapse of buildings damaged by the first quake.
Nobutaka Machimura, secretary of the Japanese government's cabinet, says the first victim was killed by a landslide in Iwaki, a city in the prefecture of Fukushima; the second was in the prefecture of Iwate, near the epicentre, where a truck hit a person who had fled from a building in panic. The last confirmed victim was a worker who was struck by a rock near the dam of Iwate, where he was working on construction. Some of the most seriously wounded include four people involved in an auto accident near the airport of Sendai, when the vehicle they were in was jolted by the powerful shock.
The violent earthquake also caused a leak of radioactive water from a tank at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, but those in charge of the plant say there is no risk to the environment. The Tokyo Electric Power company says that "15 litres of liquid escaped from a tank", but that the level of radioactivity is well below "the threshold of risk to the environment", and the reactor has continued functioning normally.