Earthquake strikes near Japanese island of Honshu

SANAA, Dec. 30 (YPA) – A powerful earthquake struck early on Wednesday, the island of Honshu, Japan.
The Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Institute said the earthquake had a magnitude of five on Richter scale.
The center added that the quake occurred at a depth of 67 km near the east coast of the Japanese island of Honshu.
The center confirmed that the earthquake occurred at exactly (00:35) GMT, at latitude (36.49) north and longitude (140.58) east.
The Japan Meteorological Agency announced that the earthquake occurred at a depth of 84 km, with a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale.
Japan is witnessing a large number of earthquakes due to its geographical location along the area called the “Fire Belt”, where 81% of the world’s largest earthquakes occur in this active belt.