World

SHIROMARU , JAPAN — Rescuers and residents sifted through rubble on Saturday as their focus turned to recovering bodies and cleaning up rather than finding survivors, five days after a huge earthquake struck central Japan and killed at least 126 people.

The death toll from the New Year's Day 7.5 magnitude quake in the Ishikawa region of Japan's main Honshu island was certain to rise, with 210 people still unaccounted for, authorities said.

The work of thousands of rescue workers has been hampered by bad weather — with snow forecast for Sunday — and roads torn apart by gaping cracks and blocked by an estimated 1,000 landslides.

Two elderly women were pulled from the wreckage of their homes on Thursday in the badly hit city of Wajima on the Noto peninsula, but since there has been no reason for cheer.

In Suzu, where dozens of homes lie in ruins, a dog barked while an AFP team filmed the clean-up operation on Friday, the signal of a grim discovery.

“Training for disaster rescue dogs begins with something similar to a game of hide-and-seek,” canine trainer Masayo Kikuchi told AFP.

“Finally they are trained to bark when seeing a person under the rubble.”

Houses containing any fatalities that are discovered are being marked and left alone until a coroner can come with relatives to identify the body.

Fishing boats were sunk or lifted like toys onto the shore by tsunami waves that also reportedly swept one person away.

The coastal community of Shiromaru, which was hit by a tsunami several metres high on January 1, was a tangled mess of wooden, metal and plastic debris.

“The tsunami came from the cove of Shiromaru through the river, and then ran up through the street,” said Toshio Sakashita, one of its roughly 100 residents.

“We have received no public support here. Look, the main street is still blocked due to the rubble, which has been left untouched,” the 69-year-old told AFP.

“We cannot live in our house any more,” Yukio Teraoka, 82, told AFP as he and his wife shovelled heavy, sodden sand brought by the waves out of their wrecked home.

Pray for souls 

Local authorities said Saturday that 126 people were confirmed dead.

“We sincerely pray for the repose of the souls of those who have passed away,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on social media.

In an emergency response meeting he told ministers “urgently and swiftly” to repair roads to help hundreds of people in cut-off areas.

Despite frosty ties with Japan, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a message of “deep sympathy and condolences”, state news agency KCNA reported, echoing the United States, China and other countries.

Around 23,200 households were without electricity in Ishikawa and more than 66,400 were without running water. 

Power and water outages have also affected hospitals and facilities for taking care of elderly and disabled people.

“We are facing extremely severe situations” due to the water outage, Ishikawa governor Hiroshi Hase said during a disaster management meeting.

Restoration of running water will take a long time “as many water pipes have cracks”, he said.

More than 30,000 people were in 366 government shelters.

Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and most cause no damage, with strict building codes in place for more than four decades. But many buildings are older.

The country is haunted by the monster quake of 2011 that triggered a tsunami, left around 18,500 people dead or missing and caused a nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plant.

WAJIMA, Japan — Japanese rescuers scrambled to search for survivors on Wednesday as authorities warned of landslides from heavy rain after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 62 people.

The 7.5-magnitude quake on January 1 that rattled Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Honshu triggered tsunami waves more than a metre high, sparked a major fire and tore apart roads.

The Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast was most severely hit, with buildings ravaged by fire and houses flattened in several towns, including Wajima and Suzu, as shown by before-and-after satellite images.

The regional government announced on Wednesday that 62 people had been confirmed dead and more than 300 injured, 20 of them seriously.

The toll was expected to climb as rescuers battle aftershocks and poor weather to comb through rubble.

More than 31,800 people were in shelters, and at least 200 buildings had collapsed, with the number expected to rise, the government said.

“More than 40 hours have passed since the disaster. We have received a lot of information about people in need of rescue and there are people waiting for help,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday after an emergency task force meeting.

The number of military personnel sent to the area on rescue missions has been doubled, with more rescue dogs also deployed, he added.

The operation was given extra urgency as the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a heavy rain warning in the region, advising people to be on alert for landslides until Wednesday evening.

There were “almost no houses standing” in one town in the Suzu area, said Municipal Mayor Masuhiro Izumiya. 

“About 90 per cent of the houses [in that town] are completely or almost completely destroyed... the situation is really catastrophic,” he said, according to broadcaster TBS.

Around 32,800 households were still without power in Ishikawa prefecture, the local utility said. Many cities were without running water.

Plenty of food and emergency supplies have arrived in the region, but blocked or damaged roads have slowed their delivery to communities, regional authorities said.

Yuko Okuda, 30, was taking shelter at an evacuation centre at the municipal office of the town of Anamizu, down the coast from Suzu.

“I’m here because our lifelines have been cut off. Electricity, water and gas — everything. And as aftershocks keep happening, our house could collapse at any time,” she told AFP.

“The cold and the lack of food are my biggest concerns now,” she said, explaining that her son is allergic to eggs and so could not eat the food provided.

Trains, highways reopened 

Shinkansen bullet trains and highways have resumed operations after several thousand people were stranded — some for almost 24 hours.

The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.5, while the JMA measured it at 7.6, triggering a major tsunami warning.

The powerful quake was one of more than 400 to shake the region through Wednesday morning, the JMA said.

After the main jolt, waves at least 1.2 metres high hit Wajima and a series of smaller tsunamis were reported elsewhere.

Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and the vast majority cause no damage, with strict building codes in place for more than four decades.

Earthquakes have hit the Noto region with intensifying strength and frequency over the past five years.

The high number of aftershocks is a result of the “complex” fault systems below the peninsula, Yoshihiro Ito from Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute told AFP.

The country is haunted by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake off northeastern Japan in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

It also swamped the Fukushima atomic plant, causing one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

Minor damage was reported at some nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan shoreline after Monday’s earthquake and aftershocks — including leaks of water used to cool nuclear fuel and a partial shutdown of power at one plant.

The plant operators said there was no danger of damage to the environment or the nuclear power stations themselves.

LONDON — Hundreds of flood warnings were in place in the UK on Wednesday, after strong winds and rain lashed large parts of the country, hitting travel and cutting power. 

The strongest gusts from Storm Henk were recorded on Tuesday afternoon on the Isle of Wight, off England’s south coast, where the wind reached 151 kilometres per hour. 

The wind got up to 81 mph at Exeter airport, along the south coast in Devon, the Met Office weather agency said. 

Gloucestershire Police in western England said a man in his 50s was killed when a tree fell on his car during the storms near Cirencester. 

On Wednesday morning, the Environment Agency said it had issued 294 flood warnings — where flooding is expected — and 341 flood alerts — where flooding is possible — in England. 

Several residents had to be evacuated from houseboats and caravans on the River Nene near Northampton, 112 kilometres north of London, because of rising waters. 

Eight flood warnings and 32 flood alerts were in force in Wales, as well as a severe flood warning, indicating a danger to life, Natural Resources Wales said. 

According to the Energy Networks Association, an industry body of gas and electricity suppliers, some 10,000 customers were without power.

National Highways, which operates and maintains motorways and major roads in England, said several main routes were closed because of flooding. 

The organisation warned that with more rain forecast in several regions throughout the day, some roads would remain shut for several hours.

Train companies also warned passengers that services would be disrupted, as high winds had brought down trees onto railway lines. 

Scotland and northern England in particular were hit in late December by Storm Gerrit, which saw three men die when their car fell into a river.

SEOUL — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was recovering in intensive care after he was stabbed in the neck on Tuesday by a man who pushed through a crowd pretending to be his supporter, his party said.

Lee was surrounded by journalists when a man lunged and struck him on the left side of his neck, Busan police official Son Je-han said at a press briefing.

Lee was first taken to hospital in Busan, then flown to the capital Seoul where he underwent a two-hour surgery, Kwon Chil-seung of Lee’s Democratic Party told reporters.

“Damage to the internal jugular vein was confirmed,” Kwon said.

Lee was conscious after the surgery and is “currently admitted to the intensive care unit and is recovering”, Kwon added.

The attacker was arrested at the scene.

Police official Son told reporters that he was a man in his 60s who “used an 18-centimetre knife — its blade is 13 centimetres long — which he purchased online”.

In footage aired on South Korean television stations, police were seen wrestling the suspect, who displayed a pro-Lee slogan, to the ground.

South Korean authorities plan to bring attempted murder charges against the assailant, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The attacker told the police, according to Yonhap, that his intention was to kill Lee.

The 59-year-old politician was “walking to his car while talking to reporters when the attacker asked for his autograph”, a witness told local broadcaster YTN.

In TV footage, Lee was seen collapsing to the ground as people rushed to help him.

Yonhap earlier reported, citing fire department officials, that Lee suffered a one-centimetre laceration in the attack.

Several high-profile South Korean politicians have been attacked in public in past years.

An elderly man hit Song Young-gil, who led the Democratic Party before Lee, in the head with a blunt object in 2022.

In 2006, Park Geun-hye, then the leader of the conservative party who later became president, was assaulted with a knife at a rally. The attack left a scar on her face.

Presidential contender 

Lee lost in 2022 to conservative Yoon Suk Yeol in the tightest presidential race in South Korea’s history.

Yoon expressed “deep concern” for Lee’s safety after hearing of the attack, the president’s spokeswoman Kim Soo-kyung said.

“Yoon emphasised our society should never tolerate this kind of act of violence under any circumstances.”

A former child factory worker who suffered an industrial accident as a teenage school drop-out, Lee rose to political stardom partly by playing up his rags-to-riches tale.

He is widely expected to run for president again in 2027, and recent polls have indicated that he remains a strong contender.

Lee has, however, faced some calls from within his own party to step down as its leader ahead of legislative elections this year.

His bid for the top office has been overshadowed by a string of scandals.

He avoided arrest in September when a court dismissed a request from the prosecution for him to be taken into custody pending trial on various corruption charges.

Lee still faces trial on charges of bribery in connection with a firm that is suspected of illicitly transferring $8 million to North Korea.

He is also accused of breaching his duties, allegedly resulting in a loss of 20 billion won ($15 million) for a company owned by Seongnam city during his term as its mayor.

Lee has denied all allegations against him.

In August last year, he launched a hunger strike against what he called the Yoon government’s “incompetent and violent” policies.

He was hospitalised because of fasting-related ailments after not eating for 19 days.