Japan quake toll reaches 62, more than 300 injured

The devastation caused by the earthquake that occurred on the first day of the New Year on Noto Island in Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan is coming to light. Hundreds of houses collapsed and roads suffered huge damage due to an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude on Monday evening. Miles long cracks appeared in many places. More than 100 homes and shops were burned to the ground in the central Japanese city of Wajima.

So far 62 people have died in the accident, while hundreds of people are feared trapped.

Noto Airport has been closed. Here, 500 people were trapped in vehicles in the parking lot itself. On Monday, 155 earthquake tremors were felt throughout the day. People from coastal areas were sent to safe places, who have not yet reached their homes. There were waves up to 1.2 meters high in Ishikawa and surrounding coasts.

“Fires are still burning in many places, with extensive damage to buildings,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at an emergency meeting. The search and rescue operation of earthquake victims is a battle against time. He said that due to broken roads, rescue workers are finding it very difficult to reach the northern end of the Noto Peninsula.

Since Japan is in the seismic zone, earthquakes occur frequently. Therefore the earthquake monitoring system is quite robust and updated. Japan's Metrological Agency keeps monitoring every moment at six levels. The Tsunami Warning System also works under this agency. It issues a warning to the entire country within one to three minutes. National TV, loudspeakers and now apps are also helpful in this. This system is also the reason for relatively little damage from Monday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake.

While giving information about the ongoing rescue operation after the earthquake, the Ishikawa government said on Wednesday that so far 62 people have died due to the earthquake. At the same time, more than 300 people have been injured, out of which 20 are seriously injured. The government believes that the number of injured and killed in this accident may increase as rescue workers are battling aftershocks and bad weather to remove the debris. At the same time, the government said that till now more than 31,800 people have been shifted to shelter sites.