The Japan Meteorological Agency on Tuesday lifted the tsunami advisory that was issued after an earthquake of 7.4 magnitude hit Fukushima. “The tsunami advisory has been lifted,” the Japan Meteorological Agency said in a statement released at 12:50 pm (0350 GMT) on its website.

The earthquake had brought the cooling process at a nuclear plant to a halt, but no loss of life, injury or damage to property have been reported so far.

The meteorological agency said the depth of the earthquake was about 10 km. The local administration had warned of waves up to 3 metres high, but later changed this to an advisory. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the tsunami threat was over.

“Sea level fluctuations may continue along some coasts of Japan over the next few hours,” it said. The US Geological Survey later downgraded the quake’s magnitude to 6.9 on the Richter scale.

A spokesperson for Tokyo Electric Power said they had stopped the cooling system at a storage pool for spent nuclear fuel at the reactor at its Fukushima Daini Plant after the earthquake. The process was reportedly resumed soon after. People along the coast were evacuated after fears of aftershocks and stronger tsunami waves.

Japan lies in a seismically active zone and accounts for 20% of the world’s earthquakes. In 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9 triggered a massive tsunami that led to the world’s worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl. All reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant (pictured above) were shut down after the incident, but cooling is still required for the nuclear fuel stored at the site.