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TOKYO, Japan – Less than 24 hours after being slammed by the most powerful storm in 25 years, which left at least 11 people dead, Japan was forced to relive the dark, repressed memories of 2011.

At 3.08 am on Thursday, Japan was struck by a powerful magnitude 6.7 earthquake that triggered landslides and caused a massive power blackout across an entire island. 

Early on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said that a powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck southern Hokkaido at a depth of 24 miles.   

Early on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) said that a powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.

The U.S.G.S. started that the quake struck some 68 kilometres southeast of Hokkaido’s prefectural capital of Sapporo, which is home to about 1.9 million people.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency added that the quake struck southern Hokkaido at 3.08 am at a depth of 24 miles.

The agency did not issue a tsunami warning in the aftermath.

The east of the city of Tomokomai was noted as the epicenter of the quake.

Houses razed, hundreds injured

The quake triggered a landslide on the country’s northern island, which reportedly engulfed hundreds of houses, leaving several people trapped and injured.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said that at least 19 people were missing and more than 120 people had suffered injuries in Hokkaido after the quake.

The report further stated that the landslide caused a long ridge in the rural town of Atsumi. 

Other local media reports also confirmed that a man had suffered cardiac arrest after falling down a flight of stairs.

The tremor also resulted in widespread power outages that initially affected a number of areas and subsequently led to an island wide blackout.

Even hours after the quake, the whole of Hokkaido prefecture, with a population of 5 million, continued to experience power outages.

In a brief statement issued initially, a spokesman for Japan’s Hokkaido Electric Power Co. said, “The magnitude 6.7 quake that hit near Sapporo on the western part of the island at 3:08 a.m. cut off power to nearly 3 million buildings.”

While authorities in the region have not stated when services will resume, they confirmed that all airports and trains on the island halted operations.

Later, Hokkaido Electric Power Co. said that it had conducted an emergency shutdown of all its fossil fuel-fired power plants after the quake, which had caused the blackouts across the island.

The company spokesperson added that efforts to restore power to 2.95 million households were underway.

However, he said that it was not clear when services would be restored.

Addressing a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the Tomari Nuclear Power Station suffered a power outage but was cooling its fuel rods safely with emergency power.

The operator, Hokkaido Electric confirmed that there were no radiation irregularities at the plant.

Rushing into office before 6 am, following reports on the quake, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe addressed reporters about government plans.

Abe said that his government had set up a command centre to co-ordinate relief and rescue.

He pointed out that saving lives was his government’s top priority.

Abe also called for an emergency meeting with cabinet ministers, and told them, “While gathering information about the damage as quickly as possible, we will work closely with local authorities and do all in our power to rescue those affected, evacuate local people and restore essential services.”

Meanwhile, NHK also reported that a fire broke out at a Mitsubishi steel plant in the city of Muroran but local officials confirmed that the fire had been largely brought under control.

Aftershocks dampen rescue efforts

Hours after the quake, authorities reported that the region had been experiencing a series of smaller shocks, which hampered efforts by rescue officials who were scrambling to help people trapped after the landslide and quake. 

According to the Meteorological Agency, one of the aftershocks was measured at magnitude 5.4, which followed the initial temblor. 

An official from the Meteorological Agency, Toshiyuki Matsumori warned residents to take precautions for potential major aftershocks over the next few days. 

Japan sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire” where a large proportion of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

The Ring of Fire, in the basin of the Pacific Ocean, is one of the most tectonically-active places on earth which comprises a series of fragile fault lines that stretch 25,000 miles from New Zealand, across the east coast of Asia through Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, over to Alaska, Canada and the U.S. West Coast then down to the southern tip of South America.

The country experienced its previous biggest earthquake, which measured at 9.0 magnitude on March 11, 2011.

It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, which struck under the ocean off the coast of the northern city of Sendai. 

The earthquake set off a massive tsunami which devastated a wide swathe of the Pacific coastline, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead.