At 10:13 this morning a 6.7 magnitude earthquake has just hit Niigata Prefecture:

At the time of this posting, not many details were known about the level of damage inflicted, but it was a pretty strong earthquake.

TOKYO –A strong earthquake jolted northwestern Japan on Monday morning and caused buildings in the capital Tokyo to sway. The Meteorological Agency said small tsunamis as high as 20 inches were believed to have hit coasts in the area.

Three nuclear reactors in the region automatically stopped but no irregularities were reported, public broadcaster NHK said.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and was centered off the coast of the prefecture (state) of Niigata, the agency said in a statement. The tidal waves were believed to have hit the Niigata coasts, the agency added.

Several bullet train services linking Tokyo to northern Japan have been suspended, NHK said.

Update: Networks haven’t had time to collect much footage of the earthquake yet, but here is some of what they’ve aired…

Update 2: The amount of damage inflicted by the earthquake is quite large:

A strong earthquake flattened houses in northwestern Japan on Monday, killing at least six people, forcing the evacuation of thousands and sparking a small fire at the world’s biggest nuclear power plant.

Buildings swayed as far away as Tokyo, and nuclear power reactors in Niigata prefecture automatically shut down for checks but there were no radiation leaks reported.

Two women in their 80s died when their houses collapsed during the magnitude 6.8 tremor and a police spokesman confirmed six deaths, including that of an 83-year-old man. Another elderly woman and a couple were also reported among the dead.

More than 700 people were injured.

“First there was a sharp vertical jolt and then it shook sideways for a long time and I couldn’t stand up. Tall shelves fell over and things flew around,” said Harumi Mikami, 55, a teacher who was at her school in Kashiwazaki City, near the focus of the quake in Niigata prefecture about 250 km (155 miles) northwest of Tokyo.

The quake halted gas service to about 35,000 homes and disrupted the water supply to all of Kashiwazaki, a city with a population of around 95,000 that was hardest hit by the quake, media and officials said.

About 25,000 homes in Niigata prefecture were without electricity, a local official said.

Houses, many wooden with traditional heavy tile roofs, were flattened, a temple roof caved in and roads cracked in the quake, which was centered in the same northwestern area as a tremor three years ago that killed some 65 people.