'Buildings rocked for four minutes'

An Irishman teaching in Japan has described the horror in his classroom as the worst recorded earthquake to hit Japan caused widespread devastation.

James McCrory from Belfast, who is head of art and design at Yokohama International School, described the earthquake as “huge”. He said the ground was shifting “for about four minutes” as buildings rocked and children in the school sheltered with their teachers under tables.

He said children were crying as the building swayed and objects crashed from the walls.

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake was centred about 150kms off the Pacific coast of Japan and triggered a huge tsunami that has devastated the port city of Sedai and caused widespread damage to the capital, Tokyo, and other cities along the northeast coast.

Yokohama is about a half-hour train journey south of Tokyo.

Mr McCrory said teachers and pupils remained in school for several hours after the first earthquake “as all transport was suspended”.

The earthquake struck at 2.45 pm local time (5.45am Irish time) and was followed by a number of powerful aftershocks. News images showed ships being swept away in the resultant tsunami with streets becoming rivers along which vehicles were carried by torrents of water.

Telephone contact to Japan was difficult this morning as internal networks became jammed, and the international community attempted to contact friends and relatives.

Mr McCrory said he was able to use email to contact friends and family around the world to let them know he was alright.

Donagh Morris, chairman of the Ireland Japan Association, said he had sent and received emails from Tokyo but that telephone calls were impossible.

Mr Morris works as a relationship manager with the Irish office of Daiwa Securities, the second largest stockbroker in Tokyo.

Mr Morris said he had sent an email to a friend in Sendai one of the areas worst affected by the quake but had yet to get a reply. Images from Japanese TV network showed the Sendai airport under water after the tsunami .

The Irish ambassador in Tokyo, John Neary, told RTÉ’s lunchtime news he was on his way to a meeting when the earthquake struck.

"I was on my way to a meeting and it was clear from the vibrations that it was a more serious earthquake than we have had before. It was clear very quickly after that it was a very serious one by Japan’s standards."

"People started to come out of buildings, so I returned to the embassy. The people here, because they were on a higher floor, were more seriously affected, and the building shook quite a bit and we suffered some minor damage” he said.

Mr Neary said the embassy had no information of any serious injuries among the Irish community in Japan but staff were trying to contact those registered with them.

He said a number of calls were logged with the Department of Foreign Affairs crisis centre in Dublin and the embassy would follow those up. Mr Neary said the northeastern part of the country had taken the brunt but that most Irish people in Japan were not in that area.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs estimated there were 2,000 Irish citizens in Japan. Hundreds are already feared dead as a result of the quake and tsunami broadcaster NHK said earlier today.

Many more are missing. The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of Japan's coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly.

Back in Ireland children arrived for classes this morning to find huge traces etched onto the charts of their school seismometers. Ireland's national seismic network also recorded the event, which sent these research-class seismometers off the scale.

The Department of Foreign Affairs helpline for people concerned about Irish citizens in Japan is 01 4180233.

Preparations are under way in Hawaii as a tsunami expected to be six feet is expected to hit the islands in a series of waves over coming hours.