[Anchor]
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued an emergency earthquake warning, announcing that a massive magnitude 9.9 earthquake had occurred today (October 16). The nation was thrown into turmoil as high-speed railways halted and citizens panicked, but the earthquake warning was retracted eight minutes later.
For more details, let's connect to correspondent Mun Junmo in Tokyo.
[Reporter]
[An earthquake has occurred. An earthquake has occurred.]
At around 12:40 PM today, televisions and cell phones across Japan simultaneously rang with earthquake warnings.
The alert stated that an unprecedented magnitude 9.9 mega-earthquake had struck the Kuril Islands, and that a maximum intensity of 7 was expected across a wide area of Japan.
Intensity 7 is the highest rating on the Japan Meteorological Agency's scale, representing a severe tremor where people cannot remain standing and wooden buildings can collapse.
However, aside from an intensity of 1 recorded in Hakodate, most regions experienced no shaking at all.
Ultimately, the earthquake warning was canceled eight minutes later.
The actual epicenter was not the Kuril Islands stated in the warning, but off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, more than 400 kilometers away, and the magnitude was also revised from 9.9 down to 6.9.
Some sections of the Shinkansen high-speed railway suspended operations for about 15 minutes before resuming.
[Local Government Broadcast: The emergency earthquake bulletin issued just a moment ago has been canceled.]
Although brief, citizens were left gripped by fear.
[Citizen: I was shocked. The magnitude was huge, and even when it was canceled, the emergency alert sound went off, so I was startled twice.]
[Citizen: I was so surprised. We've had events like the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake before.]
The Meteorological Agency bowed its head in apology over the unprecedented cancellation of the earthquake warning.
[Ebita Ayaki / Director of Earthquake and Tsunami Observation Division, Japan Meteorological Agency: We deeply apologize for causing great inconvenience to everyone. We are truly sorry.]
The Meteorological Agency explained that the fully automated emergency earthquake warning system misjudged the location of the epicenter and incorrectly applied a calculation formula meant for domestic epicenters, leading to an overestimation of the magnitude.
The agency stated that there was no cyberattack on the system, but added that it has not yet figured out why the error occurred.
(Video reporting: Han Chul-min | Video editing: Cho Mu-hwan | Design: Cho Su-in)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.