Thousands of Japanese rescuers on Thursday battled rubble and blocked roads as hopes faded for dozens listed as missing three days after a devastating earthquake that killed at least 81.
Hundreds of people in more than a dozen communities remained cut off in Ishikawa prefecture in central Japan, devastated by the 7.5-magnitude quake on New Year’s Day.
Regional governor Hiroshi Hase told a disaster management meeting that hours after the quake, “the survival rate of those in need of rescue is said to drop precipitously”.
“This is the worst catastrophe” in the current Reiwa era in the Japanese calendar, which began in 2019 when the current emperor ascended the throne, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
An elderly woman trapped in a house destroyed by a huge earthquake in central Japan was found and rescued by a search dog, the defence minister said on Thursday.
The powerful main tremor, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, injured at least 330 people, local authorities said.
They published a list on Thursday of 79 people whose whereabouts were unknown. Hundreds are sleeping in emergency shelters and in the coastal towns of Anamizu and Wajima.
Thousands of soldiers, firefighters and police officers from across Japan, assisted by sniffer dogs, combed through the rubble of collapsed wooden houses and toppled commercial buildings for signs of life.
About 30000 households were without electricity in Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast.
AFP