Increased radiation levels were registered in Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant following an 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the country's coast on Friday.
The radiation rise was registered in the turbine hall of the plant's first atomic reactor, the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company said.
Earlier on Friday about 2,000 people living near the nuclear plant were told to evacuate.
Although the exact death toll is unclear, Kyodo news agency said it may exceed 1,000 people.
A tsunami more than 7.3 meters high hit the Soma port in the Fukushima Prefecture, while a tsunami more than four meters high hit the ports of Kamaishi and Miyako in the Iwate Prefecture, the country's Meteorological Agency said.
Kyodo news agency reported explosions at two major Nissan factories and a fire in a turbine building at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in the Miyagi prefecture. A fire also broke out at an oil refinery in Ichihara city in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo.
The quake is the strongest to hit Japan in 78 years, the head of the Russian Hydrometeorological Center, Alexander Frolov, said in an interview with Russia's Rossiya 24 TV channel.
The country's Meteorological Agency is urging people in quake-hit areas to evacuate to higher ground to avoid further tsunamis.
More earthquakes measuring over 7.0 on the Richter scale could occur in and around Japan within a month, the Meteorological Agency said.
MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti)
