Tokyo, Mar 17, 2022, SPA -- A powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake hit off northeastern Japan late Wednesday, leaving at least one person dead and dozens injured and causing a high-speed shinkansen train to derail, Kyodo cited Japan Meteorological Agency as reporting. The 11:36 p.m. quake also prompted the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue a 1-meter tsunami warning to the Pacific coast of Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, but the warning was lifted Thursday morning after only relatively small tsunami waves were observed. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters early Thursday that there have so far been no abnormalities found at nuclear plants in affected areas after the big quake. The temblor, which was preceded by a magnitude 6.1 quake by two minutes, registered an upper 6 on Japan's seismic intensity scale of 7 in parts of Miyagi and Fukushima, the agency said. At an intensity of upper 6, many people find it impossible to remain standing or move without crawling. The jolts are strong enough to toss people through the air, according to the agency. The M7.4 quake, which occurred in waters off Fukushima at a depth of about 57 kilometers, was also felt across a wide swath of the country, including eastern, central and western Japan. The agency is warning of quakes of a similar scale in hard-hit areas for the next week or so. A Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train with about 100 passengers on board derailed between Fukushima Station in Fukushima and Shiroishizao Station in Miyagi, but no injuries were reported, according to East Japan Railway Co. Fire departments in Miyagi and Fukushima received numerous calls requesting an emergency response, with reports of many injured in the coastal city of Soma in Fukushima. A male resident in Soma died because of the quake, according to the municipal government. A police officer directs traffic in downtown Tokyo early on March 17, 2022, as the area was hit by a blackout following a powerful earthquake in northeastern Japan. Injuries were reported in not just Miyagi and Fukushima but also Kanagawa, Ibaraki, Iwate, Akita and Yamagata prefectures, a Kyodo News tally showed. The quake caused power outages in northeastern and eastern Japan, affecting a total of more than 2.2 million households, including about 700,000 in Tokyo, according to TEPCO Power Grid Inc. and Tohoku Electric Power Network Co. Power was later restored to most of them. After the quake, tsunami waves of up to 30 centimeters were observed in Ishinomaki port in Miyagi, the agency said, urging residents to stay away from the coast. --SPA 03:24 LOCAL TIME 00:24 GMT 0002 www.spa.gov.sa/w1708313