By KUNA,
Tokyo : A 7.0 magnitude earthquake jolted northeastern Japan including Tokyo Thursday, injuring at least eight people, but not fatally.
No tsunami warning was issued, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The agency earlier measured the size of the quake at magnitude of 6.7.
A series of smaller tremors were observed before and after the1:45 a.m. (1645 GMT Wednesday) quake, including the 6.3 magnitude quake at 1:02 a.m. The agency warned of possible aftershocks in the next few days.
The quake was centered 51 kilometers underground in the Pacific off the coast of Ibaraki Prefecture, about 150 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.
It registered a lower 5 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7 in some parts of Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures.
The agency defines an intensify of lower 5 as strong enough to make hanging objects swing violently and most unstable ornaments fall.
Japan, located in a zone where the Eurasian, Pacific, Philippine and North American tectonic plates meet and occasionally shift, is hit by 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude six or greater.