Tokyo, April 02: A total of 50 bodies have been found so far in an intensive search operation to find people still missing after Japan’s destructive earthquake and tsunami.
The three-day search operation which began on Friday is being conducted by about 18,000 of Japanese Self-Defense Forces and 7,000 US military personnel.
The search operation covers shores that were largely submerged or still remain under water and mouths of major rivers in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures,
On March 11, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, off the northeast coast of Japan’s main island, unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours.
Close to 28,000 people have either been confirmed or feared dead.
The search will not cover the 30-kilometer (19-mile) radius of the quake-hit Fukushima power plant, where radiation levels reportedly remain high.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), said radioactivity in groundwater below the station measured 10,000 times the legal threshold.
The Japanese government has evacuated residents within a 20-kilometer radius of the plant.
The March 11 quake is now considered Japan’s deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 142,000 people.
—Agencies