Japan’s North has been shaken by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake, not long after being struck by wildfires.
The United States Geological Survey reported that the earthquake began at 5:24 am, 18 kilometres west of the small town of Sarabetsu in Hokkaido at a depth of 81 kilometres.
The earthquake comes after Japan deployed 1,400 firefighters and dozens of Self-Defence Force personnel to battle mountain blazes that have been burning for five days, threatening to reach homes in the northern coastal town of Ostuchi.
Two other wildfires broke out in the north due to dry and windy weather.
One was in Kitakata city, and the other was in Nagaoka.
The area burnt by the Otsuchi fires had grown to 1,373 hectares as of Sunday morning, up 7% from a day earlier.
Ostuchi lost nearly a 10th of its population in one of Japan’s worst disasters, when it was hit with an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
Authorities have ordered 1,558 households to evacuate, which is around a third of Ostuchi’s population.
"Although the Self-Defense Forces are fighting the fires from the sky [with helicopters], the dry weather and winds are helping the fires expand," Otsuchi Mayor Kozo Hirano told a press conference.
So far, there has only been one minor injury, according to Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Rain is expected around Otsuchi, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
How the Ostuchi fires started is still under investigation.
