Japanese officials are investigating reports that Monday's 6,8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of the Niigata province in central Japan has caused a second radioactive leak.

Barrels with nuclear waste have overturned during the quake and some of their lids were found open, although it was not immediately clear whether any of the waste spilled out, the BBC reported.

Water contaminated with radioactive material at the Kashiwazaki nuclear power plant, the world's biggest, has also made it into the sea, although officials later said it would have no harmful effects on the environment.

The death toll of Monday's tremor rose to nine people, while those injured number in the hundreds. It destroyed scores of buildings, cutting communication lines, power and natural gas supply to tens of thousands of households in the province.

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