5.4 quake shakes Japan's Nagano area

TOKYO, June 29 (UPI) -- A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Nagano Prefecture in central Japan early Thursday, injuring at least seven people, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

There was no tsunami warning and there were no immediate reports of damage, Kyodo News reported.

The quake struck at 8:16 a.m. local time, the report said.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency quoted meteorologists as saying the quake was followed 5 minutes later by a magnitude 5.1-quake in Matsumoto and Yamagata areas.

Japan is battling to contain a nuclear crisis set off at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the northeast by the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake that was followed by a giant tsunami. The disaster killed or left missing thousands of people.