Toll in Japan quake, tsunami exceeds 10,000

Friday March 25, 2011 07:39:56 PM, DPA

Tokyo: The confirmed toll in Japan's earthquake and tsunami surpassed 10,000 Friday as a magnitude-6.2 aftershock jolted the battered northeast.

The number of dead in the March 11 disaster stood at 10,066 while 17,443 people were listed as missing, the National Police Agency said.

Northeastern Japan has been jolted by a record number of aftershocks since the initial magnitude-9 quake, the strongest ever recorded in Japan.

In the one measured Friday by the Meteorological Agency, there were no reports of casualties or damage, and the agency did not issue a tsunami warning. The epicentre of the 8.36 p.m. (1136 GMT) quake was off Miyagi prefecture, the agency said.

On Thursday, a similar aftershock with a magnitude of 6.1 also hit the region.

Meanwhile, the public broadcaster NHK found in a survey of 225 hospitals in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, among those hardest hit in the March 11 disaster, that at least 56 hospital patients had died in the past two weeks because of inadequate care.

The deaths were blamed on a lack of electricity, which took out the hospitals' medical equipment and heating systems, as well as delays in medical supply deliveries and pneumonia.

In Miyagi prefecture, one of the hardest-hit areas, officials have osted information about 2,000 bodies on the internet in the hopes relatives could help to identify their loved ones. The information included details about clothing and build, the Kyodo News agency reported.

In Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, officials have begun to bury bodies without cremating them, as is traditional in Japanese culture, because their crematoriums have been overwhelmed.

Ports, roads and train service was reopening in the disaster zone, and in another effort to try to return some of the victims' lives to normal, schools in other areas of Japan have offered to take in pupils whose schools were destroyed in the disaster.

The board of education in Hiroshima prefecture said it would find rooms for schooling and lodging in Etajima for 150 schoolchildren and their teachers from Miyagi but they would most likely have to come without their families, Kyodo said.

Another 80 children could find schoolrooms in Akitakata, also in Hiroshima, the board said.

The Japanese government has estimated the cost of the damage from the tsunami and magnitude-9 quake, the strongest ever recorded in Japan, at 16 trillion to 25 trillion yen ($197 billion to $308.5 billion), the Japanese government said.

                                           Home | Top of the Page

Top Stories

Demand in LS for fair deal to Muslims but no consensus on reservation

Strong pleas for a fair deal to Muslims was made in the Lok Sabha today but views differed on  »

Govt. should stop playing game with Muslims, says Maulana Wali Rahmani

 Schemes for minorities need fair implementation: Khurshid

  Most Read

Imam of the Grand Mosque arriving on three day historic visit to India Friday

Imam of the Grand Mosque, Masjid al Haram, Makkatul Mukarrema, Dr Abdul Rahman As-Sudais is arriving on three day historic visit to India March 25. The   »

Quake kills 27 in Myanmar, one in Thailand

A magnitude-6.8 earthquake killed at least 27 people in northeast Myanmar and one in Thailand, officials said Friday. At least 27 people died and 50 were injured in Tali, the village nearest the epicentre in northeastern Myanmar, officials said. "We got information that the worst area   »

  News Pick

Thousands march at protesters' funeral in Syria

Thousands took to the streets of the Syrian city of Daraa Thursday for the funeral of   »

Avoid civilian casualties in Libya: OIC

Nursery kid thrashed by principal, sustains fracture

Angry with a nursery student's "illegible handwriting", a principal thrashed the child so hard that the four-year-old suffered a fractured arm, police said Friday. The principal has been booked but is absconding.  »

Over 4,000 cities to turn off lights during Earth Hour

Over 4,000 cities - including New Delhi and Mumbai - from 131 countries will turn off their lights during the global Earth Hour event Saturday, the   »

India to switch off lights at Earth Hour

Baba Ramdev: Yogi or Commissar?

Baba Ramdev has been probably most successful of God men of recent times. He claims to have a following of over a billion people. There are an infinite number of people claiming that his yoga therapy and medicines work   »

Super 30 founder to share dais with Blair, others

Anand Kumar, the founder of Bihar's famous Super 30 coaching centre, will share the dais with former British prime minister Tony Blair, Nobel winner Albert Fert and other global greats at a conference in the UAE next week.  »

Picture of the Day

President of India Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil addressing at the inauguration of the National Festival of Tribal Dances, ‘PRAKRITI’, in New Delhi on March 16, 2011. Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Culture, Kum. Selja, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Kantilal Bhuria and Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Mahadev S. Khandela are also seen.

(Photo: Mukesh Kumar)