Tsunami alert issued for several regions in Russia's Far East

NEW DELHI: Several regions in Russia's Far East have been put on tsunami alert on Monday after a series of powerful earthquakes rocked the central part of Japan, generating waves as high as 5 meters in some areas.

Earlier in the day, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued tsunami warnings for a broad swath of the country's western coast, including Ishikawa, Fukui, Niigata, Toyama, Yamagata and other prefectures, after a series of strong earthquakes with major ones measured at up to 7.6 magnitude struck a wide area on the Sea of Japan coast in central Japan.

According to the weather agency, the major temblor occurred at 4:10 p.m. local time (0710 GMT) at a shallow depth, registering a maximum 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. It also shook buildings in central Tokyo.