TOKYO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Japan's weather agency falsely issued an emergency alarm of Magnitude-9 earthquake Monday in Tokyo, disrupting some subway train services and causing a brief panic.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued an erroneous quake alarm to railway companies and cellphone app operators around 5:09 p.m. local time Monday, warning that a massive quake measuring 7 on Japan's seismic scale that peaks at 7 would hit Tokyo Bay.
The alarm was canceled soon as no temblor was observed.
Another alert was issued three minutes later by the agency, warning against a quake measuring lower 5 on Japan's seismic scale, which also turned out to be false alarm.
Some of Tokyo's subway train services were suspended briefly due to the alerts. Alarm chatters also went around on social media such as Twitter.
The weather agency said the false alarm was possibly caused by a lightening hitting spots near the observing equipment.
The cause of the error is sill under investigation.
