'No food or water, but Miyagi residents not panicking'

"Gas and water have been switched off in Miyagi and the central city of Sendai. With rare exceptions, electricity is also off. But there is no panic either in the streets or shops," the eyewitness, who arrived in Miyagi several hours after Friday's earthquake, said.

The tremor was the most powerful ever recorded in Japan, registering nine points on the Richter scale and causing a 10-metre tsunami wave that swept away people, houses and cars.

"Now the shops have changed the style of their work. Buyers are not admitted inside out of fear that people might hoard food products and so that the foodstuff may be spread unevenly among residents," he said.

Every shop has only one door open to give amount of food and water to every resident. There are long lines but no panic among residents, he said.

One small shop can serve as a good example of what is going on in the city, he said.

"The shop has all its windows and its glass door broken. There is an ATM and shelves with food products inside the shop and no one is guarding it. However, no one has ever entered it and nothing has been looted," the eyewitnesses said.