A Hong Kong travel agency on Tuesday said a group of about 30 local travellers experienced Monday's massive earthquake in Japan, while travelling near the epicentre in Ishikawa prefecture.

“The earthquake occurred while they were travelling on the coach. The driver immediately pulled over to the side of the road. The tour guide reported seeing trees shaking slightly, but there was no major shaking felt. The earthquake lasted only a few seconds," said Steve Huen, executive director of EGL Tours.

“The tour later continued to move away from the earthquake area and into the Japanese interior. All guests were safe and sound,” he told a Commercial Radio programme.

Huen said the agency is changing the itineraries for 16 groups scheduled to travel to Japan later this month, adding that the 350 people involved would be notified on Tuesday.

Another local travel agency, WWPKG, said it will cancel all tour groups to Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa this month. Tourists can choose to transfer to other groups, keep their bookings or receive a full refund.

It said it had 10 groups of about 200 travellers in Japan, but none of them were significantly affected by the series of earthquakes.