A radiation leak is feared after Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency reported a third explosion at Unit 2 of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant in the country's northeast.
Watch Video of Nuclear plant explosion
Shinji Kinjo, an agency spokesman, said that "a leak of nuclear material is feared", after the explosion was heard at 6:10am local time (21:10 GMT) on Tuesday.
The troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began when a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast on Friday knocked out power, crippling cooling systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from melting down.
Radiation levels measured at the front gate of the plant jumped following the explosion, Kinjo said.
Naoto Kan, the Japan prime minister, warned people within 30km of the Fukushima plant to stay indoors.
Low-level radioactive wind from the reactor could reach Tokyo, the Japanese capital, within 10 hours, based on current winds, the French embassy said in a statement on its Japanese-language website on Tuesday.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the plant's operator, said the explosion occurred near the suppression pool in the reactor's containment vessel. The pool was later found to have a defect.
TEPCO said some employees of the power plant were temporarily evacuated following Tuesday's explosion.
An agency spokesman, Shigekazu Omukai, said the nuclear core of Unit 2 was not damaged in the explosion. But the agency said it suspects the bottom of the container that surrounds the generator's nuclear core might have been damaged.
Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Ichinoseki, in northeast Japan, said: "People didn't know what was happening and they wonder what they can do. Some say that they can't get out due to lack of fuel.
"We know that there was a sound of explosion at Unit 2, where there are significant numbers of fuel rods submerged in water.
"The government is sticking to the line that radiation is within safety levels, but it is a fast-changing situation."
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