1st LD Writethru: 5.3 magnitude quake jolts Japan's Miyagi Prefecture, no tsunami warning issued: JMA

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 struck Miyagi Prefecture in Japan's northeast on Sunday, the weather agency here said.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the magnitude-5.3 temblor occurred at 4:37 p.m. local time with its epicenter located at a latitude of 38.3 degrees north and longitude of 141.6 degrees east and struck at a depth of 20 kilometers.

The quake, which registered 4 on Japan's seismic scale which peaks at 7, was also felt in Iwate, Yamagata, Fukushima, Aomori, Akita and Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures, although the agency said it had not issued a tsunami warning as a result of the temblor.

Local authorities said that there had been no immediate reports of injury or damage as a result of the quake, or a smaller temblor that occurred minutes later at 4:58 local time, registering a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 in the Miyagi region and 3 on Japan's seismic scale.

Japan's nuclear watchdog has also confirmed that all nuclear facilities in the region, including the stricken Daichi complex in Fukushima Prefecture, which saw multiple catastrophic meltdowns following an earthquake-triggered tsunami striking in 2011, were showing no signs of abnormality. Endit