TOKYO: A powerful earthquake measuring up to lower 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 hit Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, on Thursday.

The quake, which occurred around 3:21 p.m. (6:21 a.m. GMT), registered lower 5 in the town of Hashikami on the Pacific coast, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The temblor, with an estimated magnitude of 5.5, is believed to have struck at a point some 50 kilometers below the seabed off Aomori, the agency said.

According to the Aomori prefectural government's disaster crisis management section, no injuries were immediately reported.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormality has been found at Tohoku Electric Power Co.'s idled Higashidori nuclear power plant in the village of Higashidori or Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.'s spent nuclear fuel-reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho.

Jiji Press