A strong new earthquake rattled Japan's northeast on April 11, 2011, as the government urged more people living near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation.
A strong new earthquake rattled Japan's northeast on April 11, 2011, as the government urged more people living near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation.
The magnitude 7.0 aftershock, which trapped some people in collapsed homes, came just hours after residents bowed their heads and wept in ceremonies to mark a month since a massive earthquake and tsunami killed up to 25,000 people and set off radiation leaks at the nuclear plant by knocking out its cooling systems. The US Geological Survey, however, said it measured 6.6.
Officials said the aftershock on April 11 aftershock did not endanger operations at the tsunami-flooded Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, where power was cut but quickly restored. The epicenter was just inland and about 100 miles (160 kilometres) north of Tokyo.
A nuclear safety official, however, said repeated strong aftershocks - another large quake hit last Thursday - were slowing work at the plant, and said that if one of them were to spawn a tsunami, the complex would be just as vulnerable as on March 11.
With the crisis dragging on, residents of five more communities, some of them more than 20 miles (30 kilometres) from the plant, were urged to evacuate within a month because of high levels of radiation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. People living in a 12-mile (20-kilometre) radius around the plant already have been evacuated.
The latest quake spooked people yet again in a disaster-weary northeastern Japan. Customers in a large electronics store in Sendai screamed and ran outside and mothers grabbed their children.
In Iwaki, a city close to the quake's epicentre, three houses collapsed and up to seven people were believed trapped inside. Two were later rescued. Their condition, and the fate of the others, was not immediately known.
