The numerous strong earthquakes that struck central Japan on Monday, including an extremely powerful one with a magnitude of more than 7, caused “many casualties” and extensive property damage, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said earlier today.

According to the BBC, the dead are at least 30. More than 1,000 rescuers are searching for survivors in the wreckage.

“Very heavy damage” as well as “numerous casualties” were confirmed, as “buildings collapsed and (fires) broke out,” Mr Kishida said. “We will have to race against time” to save lives, he added.

Many roads were damaged, according to aerial footage, the head of government said, stressing that access to the northern tip of the South peninsula is difficult. After the tsunami warning came, the authorities will try to reach the cut off areas by sea, he explained.

According to Mr. Kishida, about 1,000 members of the Japanese armed forces have already been deployed to earthquake-hit areas and are conducting search and rescue operations.

According to international reports, dozens of buildings have collapsed in several cities, trapping an unknown number of people under the rubble. The 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck at about 4:10 p.m. local time on Monday.

Central Japan was hit by 155 earthquakes from yesterday Monday at 16:00 (local time; 09:00 Greek time) to today at 09:00 (02:00 Greek time), according to the Japan Meteorological and Seismological Agency.

Most of these earthquakes had magnitudes greater than 3.0. Six new strong tremors were felt yesterday, the agency said.

The danger of a tsunami hitting Japan, especially Ishikawa prefecture, is now considered to have passed and all warnings for it have been officially lifted, the Asian country’s meteorological and seismological agency announced and Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.

Jeffrey Hall, a lecturer at Kanda University, said he felt the shaking for about two minutes, despite being in Yokohama, on the other side of Japan’s main island. Speaking to the BBC, he stressed that the earthquake was a “very, very serious thing” for Japan.