A powerful 7.6-magnitude earth quake struck late Monday off northern Japan, triggering a tsunami of upto50cm in Pacific coast communities and warnings of potentially higher surges, the Japanese Meteorological Agency said. Several people were injured, media are ports said. The quake struck at about 11:15pm(1415GMT) in the Pacific Ocean about 80km off the coast of Aomori, the northern most prefecture of Japan’smain Honshu island,the agency said. A tsunami of 50cm was me asured in Kujiport in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori,and tsunami levels of 40 to 50cm struck other coastal communities in the region,the agency said. The agency issued analert for potential tsunami surges of up to3metres (10 feet) in some areas, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kiharurged residents to immediately head to higher ground or takes helter inside buildings are vacuation centers until the alert is lifted. Several people were injuredat a hotel in the Aomori town of Hachino heandamanin the town of Tohoku was slightly hurt when his car fell into a hole,public broadcaster NHK reported. Kihara said nuclear powerplants in the region were conducting safety check sand that so far no problems were detected. PrimeMinister Sanae Takaichi, in brief comment to reporters, said the Government set upon emergency taskforce to urgent lyassess the extent of damage.