Updated 11.01am

THE STRICKEN FUKUSHIMA nuclear plant has been temporarily evacuated after a 6.6-magnitude aftershock rattled Japan today.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has said that external electricity supply to the pumps at Fukushima Daiichi 1, 2 and 3 reactors has been cut and that back-up supplies have cut in.

A warning has been issued for a 3-foot (1-metre) tsunami in the coastal area near Fukushima, the same as after another 7.1 aftershock that shook the northeast coast last week. There was no tsunami after that quake.

The magnitude of the quake had been first reported as 7.1 but the US Geological Survey has just confirmed that it was 6.6 at its focus, 50 miles from the Fukushima plant.

People at a large electronics store in central Sendai screamed and ran outside, though the shaking made it hard to move around. Mothers grabbed their children, and windows shook. After a minute or two, people returned to the store.

Today is the one-month anniversary of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern coastal area of the country.

- additional reporting by AP