JAPAN issued tsunami alerts and ordered evacuations today as severe earthquakes shook the coastline of Ishikawa and neighbouring prefectures on its biggest island, Honshu.

The Japan Meterological Agency reported more than a dozen quakes off the coast of Ishikawa and nearby prefectures shortly after 4pm, one of them with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6.

The agency issued a major tsunami warning for Ishikawa and lower-level tsunami warnings or advisories for the rest of the western coast of Honshu and the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, Hokkaido.