A 10-meter tsunami hit Japan

Tsunamis hit the northeastern coast of Japan today after a seismic strike of 8.9 on the Richter scale. Three identified people were killed in the earthquake.

The earthquake occurred at 14:46 this afternoon (Tokyo time) at a depth of 10 km, 382 km northeast of Tokyo, the US Geological Survey said that adding that the earthquake was as strong as 8.9 on the Richter scale. Japanese officials said three people were killed after the violent seismic.

" Heart shot out of the chest. Never felt like the earthquake this time, " said Pham Hong Long, a Vietnamese graduate student living on the outskirts of Tokyo, exclaiming on facebook. "Our whole five-storey research building shook and cried ."

AFP said the earthquake today brought four-meter tsunami waves to the northeastern coast of Japan. In Sensai port, Miyagi prefecture, tsunamis are as high as 10 meters. Japanese television broadcast images of houses washed away by tsunamis. The airfield at Sensai was flooded while dozens of people had to stand on the roof of the waiting building. Meanwhile, Kyodo news agency reported that a 7-meter tsunami hit the coast in Fukushima Prefecture.

At least 10 fires were recorded in Tokyo, AFP reported. Many buildings shook for a few minutes. The subway system stopped working, the sound of sirens everywhere and people evacuated the buildings.

" Never seen such a big earthquake. On the 9th floor, shaking violently, furniture fell everywhere, computers crashed onto a table, and a cup of water rolled," said a Vietnamese graduate student in Japan. "Everybody crawled under the table, his face turned pale! The Japanese said they never saw this big battle ."

Osamu Akiya, 46, is working in an office in Tokyo when an earthquake occurs. Bookshelves, computers were pushed to the floor. " I've seen many earthquakes but I've never seen a case like this ," he said. " I don't know if I can go home tonight ."

Previously, Japan issued the highest tsunami warning, saying that the wave could be as high as 6m.

The Pacific tsunami warning agency also issued a warning to a number of territories such as Taiwan, Russia, the Mariana Islands, Guam, the Philippines, Marshall Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Micronesia and Hawaii. .

The last time an intense earthquake struck Tokyo was in 1923 when the Great Kanto earthquake claimed the lives of 140,000 people, most of them in fires. In 1825, the earthquake named Ansei Edo also caused much damage to the city. Most recently, the Kobe earthquake in 1995 killed 6,400 people.

In 2004, more than 220,000 people died when the seismic force reached 9.1 on the Richter scale, which struck Indonesia, accompanied by tsunamis that devastated areas around the Indian Ocean.

Below is a picture of a tsunami hit Japan (Photo by theage)