A Manxman has been describing the moments when one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded hit Japan earlier today (Friday).

Geoff Radcliffe, who works for global investment management company Blackrock, was in his office in the main business district of Tokyo when the tremors began.

He told James Davis what happened (play audio file):

The earthquake struck at 2pm in Japan (5am in Britain) and hundreds of people are feared dead.

It measured a huge 8.9 on the Richter scale and triggered a ten metre high tsunami, which caused widespread devastation in the north east of the country. Tsunami alerts were issued across the Pacific, from the coast of California to Indonesia.

At least 200 bodies have already been recovered (3pm), a ship with 100 people onboard has
been swept away, and a passenger train is unaccounted for.

Thousands of people living near a nuclear power plant have been evacuated and
fires are burning across the region.

Warnings have been issued in around 50 locations, stretching from Asia's Pacific
rim to the other side of the ocean.

Small tsunami waves have hit places like Taiwan and Hawaii, but so far no
damage has been reported outside Japan.

Internet search site Google's put an alert on its homepage warning those in
countries under threat.