Tokyo, Dec 3 (EFE).- Japanese authorities lifted the tsunami alert Sunday after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit the island of Mindanao, in southern Philippines.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency lifted the alert Sunday morning (Japanese local time) and applied to a large area of eastern Japan, including the prefectures of Chiba, Shizuoka and Kagoshima.
The powerful earthquake occurred in the Philippines at about 10:30pm (local time) on Saturday and had a depth of about 32.8 kilometers, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The met office activated the alert for several areas of the archipelago early Sunday and said a 1-meter-high tsunami could reach Miyako Island and its surroundings in Okinawa, as well as other prefectures, including Aichi, Mie, Wakayama, Tokushima, Kochi and Miyazaki.
The office also issued the alert for the Izu island chain, near Tokyo, and the Ogasawara islands, south of the Japanese capital, and said citizens should stay away from the coast and not go fishing until tsunami warnings were lifted.
In the early morning, a 40-centimeter tsunami was observed on Hachijo Island, in Izu, and the tsunami also reached the Pacific coast from Kyushu to Kanto, according to Japanese state broadcaster NHK, though authorities said there were no immediate damages.
In the Okinawa archipelago, the evacuation of several coastal areas of some of its cities was ordered, as occurred in Miyazaki, Kochi or Tokushima.
Tsunami forecasts for many of these areas were between 40 and 10 cm. EFE
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