Japan Earthquake Of 6.7 Magnitude Rocks Olympic Village [Video]

A Japan earthquake rocked the mountainous area of central Japan that hosted the 1998 winter Olympics. The earthquake was a magnitude of 6.7.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, some scientists are warning that Japan could be in for a catastrophic volcanic eruption that would make Japan practically “extinct.”

“It is not an overstatement to say that a colossal volcanic eruption would leave Japan extinct as a country.”

On Sunday, a daylight assessment found at least 50 homes destroyed in two villages and 41 people injured across the region, including seven seriously, mostly with broken bones, officials said.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday west of Nagano city, the magnitude-6.7 earthquake struck at a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The agency revised the magnitude and depth from initial estimates. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 6.2. Since the quake occurred inland, there was no possibility of a tsunami.

“[I’ve] never experienced a quake that shook so hard. The sideways shaking was enormous,” said Ryo Nishino, a restaurant owner in Hakuba, a ski resort village west of Nagano. He told Japanese broadcaster NHK that he was in the restaurant’s wine cellar when the quake struck and that nothing broke there.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the affected areas.

All of Japan’s nuclear plants are offline following a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami in 2011 that sent three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into meltdown.

Fukushima is about 155 miles northeast of where Saturday’s earthquake occurred. ”

“We are trying to assess the situation as quickly as possible, and we’ll do our utmost for the rescue of the injured people,’ Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters.

One of the hardest-hit areas was ski town of Hakuba as at least 10 homes collapsed there, according to Shigeharu Fujimura, a Nagano prefecture disaster management official, reported The Tribune.

Many houses also lost water because of a ruptured pipe, and landslides on two major roads blocked access to some areas.

The earthquake was followed by 21 aftershocks, said Yohei Hasegawa of the Meteorological Agency’s earthquake and tsunami division.

He warned of further aftershocks and urged residents to watch out for landslides.