Japan quake toll hits 703, govt says 'over 1,000 dead'
TOKYO, March 12, AFP
At least 703 people have been confirmed killed in the massive
8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan -- but the
government voiced fears that more than 1,000 had died.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan's right-hand man and top spokesman, Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, earlier said:
"it is believed that more than 1,000 people have lost their lives".
Amid a mass rescue effort there were grim updates indicating appalling
loss of life along the hard-hit east coast of northern Honshu island,
where the monster waves destroyed more than 3,000 homes.
On Saturday afternoon, about 24 hours after the catastrophe, the
National Police Agency said 503 people had been confirmed dead and 740
missing, with 1,040 injured in the disaster. Police in Sendai, Miyagi
prefecture, separately said Friday that at least 200 and up to 300
bodies had been found on the shore.
The defence ministry said about 1,800 homes in Minami Soma, Fukushima
prefecture, were destroyed, while in Sendai authorities said 1,200
houses were toppled by the tsunami.
Thousands more homes were destroyed in a string of coastal towns --
including Ofunato, which on Friday reported 300 houses collapsed or
swept away.
The monster quake was the strongest recorded in the seismically
unstable archipelago, located on the "Pacific Rim of Fire".
In the quake-hit areas, 5.6 million households had no power Saturday
and more than one million households were without water. |