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Japan rocked by powerful earthquake

Published 10:02 6 Oct 2017 BST

Updated 10:03 6 Oct 2017 BST

JOE
Japan rocked by powerful earthquake

Homenews

A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake has struck off the eastern coast of Japan.

The epicentre is believed to have been 180 miles east of Iwaki, on the country's main island of Honshu. The quake struck at 4.59pm local time, relatively close to Fukushima, where a tsunami - caused by a quake in 2011 - severely damaged a nuclear reactor in 2011. At the time of writing, there were no reports of damage of casualty from the earthquake, although this may change. There are also no tsunami warnings in place from The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

As well as causing damage to Fukushima, the 2011 quake - along with the tsunami and landslides which followed it - killed nearly 16,000 people in the country. Thankfully, it's believed that the latest quake will pass by without causing much in the way of harm.

It comes just a couple of weeks after a similar quake (6.2 magnitude) struck off the same coastline.

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