Japan’s death toll from Monday’s earthquake reached 110 yesterday as a search for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings continue, with more than 200 still missing after the deadliest quake in nearly eight years.
The magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s west coast, destroying infrastructure and snapping power links to 22,000 homes in the Hokuriku region.
Rain hampered efforts to sift the rubble for survivors as more than 30,000 evacuees awaited aid. The number of confirmed dead stood at 110 by 4pm yesterday, up from 94 the previous day, the Ishikawa government Web site showed.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I am keenly aware of the extent of the damage caused,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
The figure is the highest since a toll of 276 in quakes in 2016 in Kumamoto.
Kishida told government officials to speed up emergency efforts to restore trunk roads ripped up by the quake.
Freelance cameraman Masao Mochizuki, 73, stood in a long queue outside a supermarket after it reopened on Thursday in the regional city of Wajima, waiting to buy necessities.
“It is such a help that they have managed to reopen,” Mochizuki said, after buying a box of heat patches, blue plastic sheets to cover broken windows and a pair of shoes to protect against glass shards.
“But I don’t see the road to reconstruction just yet,” Mochizuki added, his voice cracking with emotion.
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