Death toll expected to exceed 10,000 in tsunami-hit Japan

RT -

Northeastern Japan has been hit by a tsunami reaching 10 meters high in some areas that were caused by an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale. The confirmed death toll has exceeded 900 with more than 10,000 missing and feared dead.

The official death toll is 688, with up to 300 bodies more waiting to be identified. More than 1,500 have been injured.

Officials in the Miyagi prefecture have declared that almost 10,000 residents missing in the town of Minamisanriku are feared dead.

Japan has been recently struck by another 6.2-magnitude aftershock with the epicentre located about 180 kilometers from Tokyo – this being much closer to the capital than Friday’s devastating earthquake.

In the last 24 hours there have been over 100 aftershocks, one of the most powerful happening on Saturday afternoon near the east coast of Honshu, not far away from Fukushima region.

In northern Japan, water surged inland in Sendai, some 350km (217 miles) north of Tokyo. The city of Sendai is considered to be worst hit. Police say almost every house in the city has been damaged or destroyed.

One Japanese news agency suggests there are literally tens of thousands of victims unaccounted for.

Another serious quake, measuring 6.6, also struck after the initial quake – again rocking Tokyo's skyscrapers and spreading fear among people still reeling from the earlier disaster.

Japan has asked the United Nations to send rescue teams to help deal with the disaster.

Japan has declared a nuclear power emergency after the cooling system failed at a nuclear power plant at Fukushima following the earthquake in the northeast.

Japan's meteorological agency says the initial 8.9-magnitude quake hit at 2:46 pm local time in the Pacific ocean about 400km (250 miles) from Tokyo. 

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