TOKYO, April 18 (UPI) -- If a massive earthquake occurs beneath northern Tokyo Bay, nearly 10,000 Tokyo residents would die, the city's metropolitan government said.
In a damage projection released Wednesday, the government said a quake of magnitude 6 or stronger would affect 70 percent of the area covered by Tokyo's 23 wards and kill 9,700 people, The Japan Times reported.
The Tokyo Bay quake scenario is one of four possible types of earthquakes that scientists said could strike Tokyo.
They said a quake beneath Tokyo Bay would result in the most casualties and building damage.
The number of casualties would be highest in east and southeast Tokyo, areas packed with wooden houses.
The Tokyo Bay projection takes into account new findings from the March 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami.
It paints a worse picture than a projection issued six years ago that envisioned an earthquake of 7.3 magnitude striking the greater Tokyo area.
