Japan Earthquake Death Toll Climbs to 34
The death toll from this week’s powerful earthquake in south-western Japan has risen to at least thirty-four, local officials said, nearly doubling from the eighteen reported in the morning. Rescuers pressed on through the rubble of a collapsed shopping mall and a paper factory in Kumamoto prefecture, though hopes of finding more survivors were fading. Several people remained unaccounted for.
The sharp rise in the toll reflected bodies recovered as crews reached deeper into the wreckage two days after the magnitude-7.1 quake struck the island of Kyushu. Tens of thousands of homes were still without power or water, and evacuation centres remained full amid continuing aftershocks. Japan’s strict building codes are credited with preventing an even heavier loss of life, but the scale of the damage has tested the response of the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Watch for the final count as the search nears its end.