Japan issues false magnitude 9.9 earthquake warning, retracts it within eight minutes

Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a mistaken warning on Friday that a powerful magnitude 9.9 earthquake could strike. The agency withdrew the warning about eight minutes later.

The warning was issued after an earthquake near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The agency measured that quake at magnitude 6.9, while the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre put it at magnitude 7.0. According to the agency, the quake's epicenter was about 160 kilometers underground.

At 12:40 pm local time, alarms sounded on mobile phones and public systems warning of possible strong shaking from Hokkaido to the Tokai region of central Japan. The agency cancelled the warning at 12:48 pm.

According to a spokesperson, the error occurred because the system had placed the epicenter near the Kuril Islands and estimated the magnitude far too high. The agency apologized and said it was investigating the cause, and clarified that a cyberattack was not a possibility. No major shaking has been felt in Japan, and no tsunami warning has been issued.