Hopes fade for survivors of Japan quake

Wajima, Jan. 5: 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 as of 4:00 pm (0700 GMT), 72 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.

"Access to this area was extremely difficult, partly due to the geographical constraints of the affected area being a peninsula, and partly due to the intermittent occurrence of major quakes," he said.

"The situation remains difficult, but we will continue to do our utmost to support the victims."

The powerful main tremor, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, injured at least 330 people, local authorities said. Authorities published a list on Thursday of 79 people whose whereabouts were unknown.

With hundreds sleeping in emergency shelters, further scenes of destruction were seen by AFP in the coastal towns of Anamizu and Wajima, including burnt-out cars in a market area ravaged by fire.

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.

Yasuhiro Morita, working with a rescue unit in Wajima, said that his dog Elza was trained to bark when it finds a body.

"But today, she just wandered off toward bystanders instead, which likely means there was no body inside," Morita told AFP.

"This is where my grandma's house used to be, but it's all burned down," said Shinichi Hirano, 47. (AFP)