At least 4 dead, 90 injured in Japan’s 7.4 magnitude earthquake

Japan was rocked by an earthquake of 7.4 magnitude on Wednesday night, knocking out power and causing large-scale disruptions in Fukushima. So far, four people have been reported dead and more than 90 injured in Japan.

A tsunami warning was also issued by Japanese authorities soon after the earthquake was recorded off the northern coast of the country. A small tsunami also reached shore, but the low-risk advisory was lifted by Thursday morning.

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Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a parliamentary session Thursday morning that four people died during the quake and the cause of their deaths are being investigated, while 97 others were injured. A man in his 60s in Soma city died after falling from the second floor of his house while trying to evacuate, and a man in his 70s panicked and suffered a heart attack, Kyodo News reported earlier, according to reports from Associated Press.

Hirokazu Matsuno, the Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan, said that the damage from the earthquake was still being assessed by authorities, urging people in affected areas to use extra caution for a possible major aftershock. 

“We are doing our utmost in rescue operations and putting people’s lives first”, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said in a statement, according to reports from Associated Press.

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Photos and videos shared on social media platforms show broken walls falling to the ground, shards of windows spread over streets, cracked roads and leaking underground pipes in Japan’s Fukushima.

More than 2.2 million homes were temporarily without electricity in 14 prefectures, including the Tokyo region, but power was restored at most places by the morning, except for about 37,000 homes in the hardest hit Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, according to the Tohoku Electric Power Co. which services the region.