A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake has hit northeast Japan, triggering a ten-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path. - Read More

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An 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan Friday, setting off a tsunami that washed away buildings and triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific. (March 11)

A large tsunami is sweeping through north-eastern Japan, following an earthquake thought to have been 8.9 on the Richter Scale. The first wave has also reached Russia's Kuril islands to the north, reportedly around a metre high. 11-thousand people are being evacuated from the area. In northern Japan, water is surging inland in Sed-ay, some 350km north of Tokyo. There's considerable damage and many casualties - although numbers can't be confirmed because communications are badly-affected. Several people are missing. The lower floors of buildings on Honshu island are being flooded and cars overturned. A bridge has also collapsed. Tokyo's Norita International Airport has also closed. The quake's epicenter was located 130 kilometres off Japan's Pacific coast. A tsunami warning's now in place across the entire Pacific region.

People in cars tried to outrun the huge tsunami waves that lashed the coastal highways of Japan soon after the 8.9 temblor hit the island nation sitting on the Pacific Ring of Fire. All this happened within an unbelievable time period of a mere 10 minutes.