TOKYO, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A great earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 jolted northeastern and eastern Japan on Friday, killing hundreds of people and triggering a huge tsunami that caused severe damage to properties.
The Miyagi prefectural police found 200 to 300 bodies in Wakabayashi Ward in the city of Sendai after a 10-meter tsunami washed the port. Also in Sendai, the authorities evacuated 60,000- 70,000 people to shelters, Kyodo News reported.
And local authorities confirmed 93 deaths in eight prefectures along the Pacific coast, according local media reports.
The defense ministry dispatched 8,000 Self-Defense Forces troops to hardest-hit areas. Meanwhile, the ministry also requested cooperation from the U.S. military forces stationed in Japan and U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos expressed willingness to work with the Japanese authorities to cope with the massive earthquake.
Up to 13,000 people were stranded at Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture and 10,000 at Haneda airport in Tokyo as a total of 711 domestic flights and a number of international flights were canceled following the massive quake.
Shortly after the quake occurred, Prime Minister Naoto Kan called on the public to remain calm in the face of the disaster.
"Our government will make all-out efforts to minimize the damage caused by the earthquake," Kan said at a news conference after a cabinet meeting summoned to deal with the quake.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said some cooling functions were not working at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima and one reactor cannot be cooled down. Local authorities thus called on nearly 3,000 residents living in the neighborhood to evacuate, local media reported.
Kan declared a state of atomic power emergency but denied any radiation leaks.
An explosion was observed at the Cosmo Oil refinery in Chiba Prefecture following the massive quake.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) first upgraded the magnitude of the earthquake from 7.9 to 8.4 and later revised it up to 8.8, which the agency referred to as one of the largest quakes ever observed in Japan.
The focus of the quake, which occurred at 2:46 p.m.(0546 GMT), was located some 130 km east of the Miyagi Prefecture at a depth of 24.4 km under the sea, said the JMA.
After the great quake occurred, all cabinet ministers were summoned to the prime minister's office and a crisis management team were set up there.
In Tokyo and surrounding areas, up to 4 million homes suffered a power cut.
And the Police Agency will dispatch 900 rescuers to the quake- hit areas in northeastern Japan.
Some rail services in the Tokyo metropolitan area resumed after all trains in Tohoku, Tokyo areas had been temporarily suspended.
In Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai airport was closed. A major power outage and gas leaks were reported in a number of areas in Sendai city, capital of the prefecture.
Fires were reported at various locations, including at an ironworks in Chiba Prefecture.
The quake affected the nation's key transportation systems, including Narita airport, which were closed for safety checks on its runways. 
