SENDAI: Japan evacuated more than 320,000 people today as a tsunami triggered by Chile’s earthquake sent waves up to four feet high barrelling into its long Pacific coastline.

Floodwaters inundated buildings and left cars stranded in eastern harbours on the main island of Honshu and on far-northern Hokkaido, while white-crested waves raced from the ocean up coastal rivers.

By nightfall, police had reported no casualties and authorities downgraded the threat a notch from a “major tsunami alert”, a warning of possible three-metre waves they had issued for the first time in over 15 years.

But more waves of one metre hit the coast after dark and thousands of people readied to spend the chilly winter night in their emergency shelters set up in town halls and school buildings. The day had started with evacuation sirens wailing across the east coast of the archipelago, with millions glued to their television sets as tsunami warnings flashed across every channel.

To brace for the tsunami, massive steel gates slammed shut across the entrances to fishing ports. Coastguard vessels and air force jets fanned out to search for stray ships still at sea and to observe any damage.

“Please do not approach the coast at any cost,” Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in nationally televised comments.

“We should not drop our guard. I would like people to take all possible measures” to stay safe, he said.

East-coast railway services were halted and cities and towns cancelled festivals and local elections, while public broadcaster NHK repeatedly warned residents not to go near beaches or river mouths.

More than 320,000 people were ordered to evacuate in the Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures on Honshu, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Top 20 earthquakes

• May 22, 1960 — south—central Chile — magnitude 9.5

• Mar 28, 1964 — Prince William Sound, Alaska — 9.2

• Dec 26, 2004 — Sumatra—Andaman Islands — 9.1

• Nov 4, 1952 — Kamchatka peninsula, former Soviet

Union — 9.0

• Aug 13, 1868 — Arica, Peru (now Chile) — 9.0

• Jan 26, 1700 — Cascadia Subduction Zone (north—western US coast/southern British Columbia, Canada) — 9.0

• Jan 31, 1906 — Off the Coast of Esmeraldas, Ecuador — 8.8

• Feb 4, 1965 — Rat Islands, Alaska — 8.7

• Nov 1, 1755 — Lisbon,

Portugal — 8.7

• Jul 8, 1730 — Valparasio,

Chile — 8.7

• Mar 28, 2005 — Northern Sumatra, Indonesia — 8.6

• Mar 9, 1957 — Andreanof Islands, Alaska — 8.6

• Aug 15, 1950 — Assam — Tibet — 8.6

• Sept 12, 2007 — Southern Sumatra, Indonesia — 8.5

• Oct 13, 1963 — Kuril Islands, former Soviet Union — 8.5

• Feb 1, 1938 — Banda Sea, Indonesia — 8.5

• Feb 3, 1923 — Kamchatka peninsula — 8.5

• Nov 11, 1922 — Chile—

Argentina Border — 8.5

• Jun 15, 1896 — Sanriku,

Japan — 8.5

• Oct 20, 1687 — Lima, Peru

— 8.5. — AFP