A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake has shaken north-eastern Japan , prompting orders for about 90,000 residents to evacuate and tsunami warnings that hours later were downgraded to advisories.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) initially said a tsunami as high as 3 metres (10ft) could hit Japan’s north-eastern coast after the earthquake struck off the coast at 11.15pm (2.15pm GMT).

Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and tsunamis from 20 to 70cm (7 to 27in) high were observed at several ports, JMA said.

In the early hours of Tuesday the JMA downgraded the warnings to advisories, meaning it was seeing lower estimated wave heights and less risk of inundation.

Several fires were reported in Aomori, and about 90,000 residents were advised t

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