Strong earthquake rocks Japan

Northern Japan has been hit by a strong earthquake that injured up to 55 people people.

The tremor, which had an initial magnitude of 6.8, caused landslides and brought down power lines in Iwate – a mountainous, sparsely populated region.

Tokyo Electric Power says its Kashi-Wazaki Kariwa nuclear plant in the Iwate region is not operating normally, and is offline.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency ruled out the threat of the quake triggering a tsunami.