Japan quake toll rises to nine

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-16 10:09

KURIHARA, Japan -- Rescue teams digging their way through a ravine buried in mud pulled three bodies from a hot springs inn, bringing the death toll to at least nine after a powerful earthquake rocked northern Japan.

Soldiers caked in mud and using hand shovels recovered the bodies of the inn's 80-year-old owner and two others buried when the 7.2-magnitude quake struck early Saturday, triggering several major landslides.

Four more were believed to still be buried in the wreckage of the inn Sunday. Another 100 living in a hamlet nearby remained stranded, some without water, and had to be slowly airlifted out by police and military helicopters.

The two-story hot springs resort was inundated by mud, rocks and falling trees when the hill behind it came crashing down.

"It was a tragic disaster," said Isamu Sato, the mayor of Kurihara, a small city that was the hardest hit by the quake. The inn was on Kurihara's outskirts.

The people at the inn were probably having breakfast or preparing for the day ahead when the quake hit at 8:43 a.m. local time, and were not likely to have been bathing, said Shinsuke Yamauchi, a local disaster relief official. Yamauchi said it was a small, family-run inn.

Sato said rescue efforts remain the top priority.

Hospitals treated more than 250 local residents with injuries, and another dozen people were missing.

"It was so sudden," Yotsuko Haga, whose farmhouse was tilted and declared uninhabitable, said of Saturday's quake.

"I just tried to escape to the outside, but I could barely stand," she said. "Now I don't know where I will go. I must leave here."

A series of powerful aftershocks has hampered search efforts. More than 470 aftershocks have been recorded since the quake hit and officials warned that more landslides were possible.

A search near a dam where three construction workers were killed was called off Sunday because of fears it may have been cracked by the quake.

The quake was centered in the northern prefecture (state) of Iwate, and was located about 5 miles (8 kilometers) underground. It was felt as far away as Tokyo, 250 miles (400 kilometers) to the southwest.

The most recent major quake in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active countries, killed more than 6,400 people in the city of Kobe in January 1995.

At a tree-planting ceremony in nearby Akita prefecture, Emperor Akihito extended his sympathy to those affected by the quake.

"I hope the missing people are rescued promptly," Akihito said. "I hope peace will return to people's lives as soon as possible."