TOKYO
At least two people were slightly injured Friday when a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck the coast of northeast Japan.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said there was no tsunami risk after the tremor hit Iwate prefecture at 3.32 a.m. (1932GMT) at a depth of around 88 kilometers (55 miles).
Kyodo News cited firefighters as saying that a woman in her 60s sustained a shoulder injury in Iwate’s capital Morioka while another in her 70s was also slightly hurt after falling down.
The quake measured 5-lower on Japan’s seismic intensity scale of 7 in Morioka, according to the meteorological agency, which says the level can cause hanging objects to shake while moving unsecured furniture.
Its intensity was recorded at 4 in Aomori prefecture to the north and 3 in nearby Hokkaido, Aomori, Miyagi and Akita.
Kyodo cited utilities companies as saying that none of the four nuclear power plants and a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the region had reported abnormalities related to the tremor.
Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active areas. It accounts for around 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
The country’s coastal areas of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures were devastated in the wake of a March 2011 quake. An ensuing massive tsunami killed more than 18,000 people and triggered a nuclear disaster.
Meanwhile two strong tremors struck the south Pacific, registering 6.8 in magnitude in the Solomon Islands.
Neither the quake with a depth of 33 kilometers near the Santa Cruz islands nor the other with a depth of 37 kilometers near easternmost Temotu province’s capital Kirakira resulted in a tsunami warning, Radio New Zealand reported.
