Explosion Heard At Quake-Hit Tepco Daiichi Fukushima Plant

TOKYO (Dow Jones)--An explosion was heard and white smoke was seen around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant late Saturday afternoon in Japan, though the cause and exact location of the event were not immediately clear, according to Japan's national broadcaster NHK.

A wall at the Daiichi Number 1 reactor building appears to have been destroyed, NHK reported.

Several people appeared to have been injured in the incident, NHK said.

Only hours earlier, a spokesman for the operating utility Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), said that emergency measures taken to avert a meltdown of the nuclear power plant hit by Friday's massive earthquake in northern Japan appeared to be working in bringing down dangerously high pressures that had built up in the container.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had also said earlier that pressure in the Daiichi No. 1 reactor was falling sharply.

[e.nikkei.com]