A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Iwate and Miyagi prefectures and other areas in northern Japan Saturday morning, leaving several dead and at least 79 injured, government officials said.

The temblor that struck at 8:43 a.m. registered upper 6 on the 7-point Japanese intensity scale in the Iwate Prefecture city of Oshu and the Miyagi Prefecture city of Kurihara, the Meteorological Agency said. It also measured lower 6 in Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

The focus of the earthquake was located about eight kilometers below the ground in an inland region of southern Iwate Prefecture, the agency said. No tsunami warning was issued.

The agency has named the temblor the 2008 Iwate-Miyagi Inland Earthquake.

At least three people died in the temblor. One death occurred when 60-year-old Tomozo Chiba living in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, ran out of a store after the temblor struck and was run down by a truck, police said.

Another was caused after 55-year-old Michitaka Ishii was hit by a falling rock while fishing on a beach in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and thrown into the sea.

Masahiko Chiba, 48, a construction worker who had been on life support since he was hit by a falling rock at a dam construction site in Oshu, died in hospital later in the day.

At least 79 others were injured. Rescue workers are trying to save six to seven guests at a hot-spa inn, Komanoyu Onsen in Kurihara, who were buried under the structure hit by a landslide.

In Ichinoseki, at least 111 people living in four neighborhoods were cut off after landslides left roads unusable.

The quake was followed by dozens of aftershocks, including one which registered lower 5 on the Japanese scale in Osaki at around 9:20 a.m.

The Meteorological Agency has warned there may be further aftershocks, and the government has set up an earthquake task force at the crisis management center of the prime minister's office.

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