A Twitch streamer caught the terrifying moment a 7.6 earthquake rocked Japan on New Year’s Day during a live broadcast, leaving viewers shocked as her house trembled.
On Monday, January 1, a massive earthquake struck Japan’s west coast in its Ishikawa prefecture, rocking the country’s central island and prompting tsunami alerts all the way to neighboring nations like Russia and South Korea.
According to reports, the quake killed at least one person, taking out buildings and even starting fires, leaving “tens of thousands” of homes without power.
One Twitch streamer, who happened to be broadcasting during the time of the quake around 4 PM, managed to capture the moment during her broadcast, leaving viewers shocked.
Twitch streamer captures massive Japan earthquake in terrifying broadcast
Japanese Twitch streamer ‘Shiori’ was streaming in Niigata, Japan — an area about four hours away from the quake’s epicenter in Ishikawa prefecture — when she received an earthquake alert on her phone.
“Oh my god, it’s big!” she exclaimed. “I gotta go outside!”
The streamer fled from her home as viewers could see the room visibly shaking, rocking back and forth as the sound of rumbling and items falling off of shelves grew louder and louder.
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The moment was nothing short of horrific, leaving viewers stunned as they commented in the chat: “Oh no,” “Holy shit,” “I hope they get out safely.”
The moment lasted for about two minutes before Shiori returned to her room, reassuring viewers that she and her family were alright but were preparing for a possible evacuation.
“Guys, we’re okay, everybody’s alive,” she said. “But we just had a super huge one — level six? — so we’re gonna prepare for evacuation right now.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida mobilized search and rescue teams in an effort to free any trapped citizens and save lives. “I urge people in areas where tsunamis are expected to evacuate as soon as possible,” he said.
As reports continue to flow in, Japan’s disaster prevention app on Twitter/X was prohibited from posting about the situation due to reaching the site’s API limit on their “basic” subscription, sparking outrage against the platform.