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A pow­er­ful 7. 6-mag­ni­tude earth­quake struck late Mon­day off north­ern Japan, trig­ger­ing a tsuna­mi of up to 70 cen­time­ters (27 inch­es) in Pa­cif­ic coast com­mu­ni­ties and warn­ings of po­ten­tial­ly high­er surges, the Japan­ese Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Agency said.

Sev­er­al peo­ple were in­jured, me­dia re­ports said.

The quake struck at about 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT) in the Pa­cif­ic Ocean about 80 kilo­me­ters (50 miles) off the coast of Ao­mori, the north­ern­most pre­fec­ture of Japan’s main Hon­shu is­land, the agency said.