Rescue workers yesterday found two young children and the body of their mother four days after their car was buried by a landslide, as the death toll from Japan's earthquake and aftershocks rose to 32.
In a saga broadcast live on television, rescuers with shovels pulled Takako Minagawa, 39, and her two-year-old son from heaps of rocks and mud in Nagaoka, one of the cities worst hit by Saturday's quake.
The boy, Yuta, suffered no major injury except for a cut on his forehead and was heard muttering "Mama" to a nurse at Nagaoka Red Cross Hospital, hospital director Kenzo Kaneko said.
"He's with his father now and telling him he wants to drink water," Kaneko told a nationally televised press conference.
But he said the boy's mother was dead on arrival at the hospital.
The other child, a three-year-old girl called Mayu, remained trapped inside the car with her shoe wedged between the piles of rocks.
The dozen-strong relief team, dressed in orange protective suits, briefly suspended efforts to save the girl when night fell before resuming work, a spokesman for the prefecture said.
Rescuers do not know for sure whether she is still alive.
The car was buried by a landslide during the initial quake of 6.8 on the Richter scale Saturday and was not found until late Tuesday.
But rescue work had to wait until daylight yesterday while fresh aftershocks continued. Specialists from Tokyo's fire department located the three through advanced instruments including fiberscopes.
With the mother's death, 32 people are known to have died since Saturday's initial tremor hit the Niigata prefecture 200km northwest of Tokyo, some from stress amid the hundreds of aftershocks.
Quake survivors yesterday experienced another tremor measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale which was powerful enough to sway buildings in Tokyo.
The tremor sent quake victims in shelters hurriedly lying down on the floor for their safety. About 86,000 people are still lodged in hundreds of shelters across Niigata province.
Public broadcaster NHK said 20 people were injured in the latest tremor.
In Ojiya city, the hardest hit by the initial quake, an apartment building collapsed and damaged an adjacent clinic but two residents inside were rescued unharmed, a municipal official said.
The latest tremor also triggered at least one landslide and violently shook elevated rail tracks of Japan's bullet train -- which was derailed for the first time in its 40-year history by Saturday's quake.
Workers who had been trying to lift derailed carriages were seen scurrying back as they shook with the new tremor. The Niigata train station was shut down for several hours yesterday amid fears it would collapse.
The meteorological agency called on Niigata residents to be fully alert.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
RSS