Japanese rescue workers, emergency services and army units are fighting to save lives and contain the damage after the sixth most powerful earthquake in recorded history struck the island nation yesterday.
More than 1,000 are feared dead after the quake, which measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, shook buildings to their foundations, opened up cracks in the ground and sent a 33ft tsunami crashing on the the north-east coast.
Stranded survivors desperately tried to call for help by writing SOS signs across the roofs of the few undamaged buildings where they have taken shelter, while others surveyed the devastation, stunned.
Fires continue to burn unabated across large parts of the country as damaged oil refineries and gas works billow black smoke into the sky.
Save our souls: Stranded people wait to be rescued from the roof of a building in Miyagi Prefecture
Catastrophe: A soldier carries an elderly man on his back to a shelter in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture
Airlift: A woman is rescued from the devastation by a helicopter in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture
Carnage: Amidst Tsunami flood waters burning houses and ships are piled in a mass of debris in Kisenuma city, Miyagi prefecture
Cataclysm: Local residents look at debris brought by the huge tsunami in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture
Endeavour: Rescue workers carry a body found in the debris in the town of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, below, while stranded survivors use whatever they can find to escape the ruins of the disaster in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture
Ruins: Survivors pick their way through the debris from destroyed homes after in Sendai, north-eastern Japan
Run aground: A container ship stranded, swept half ashore, in Sendai, north-eastern Japan
Inferno: Flames engulf buildings in an industrial complex in Sendai, north-eastern Japan
Blaze: Thick black smoke rises from burning buildings in a factory zone in Sendai, north-eastern Japan
Duty: Self-Defense Force officers rescue people from the flood waters by boat in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture
Carnage: A man cycles past a car overturned by the tsunami on a street in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture
Alive: Survivors head to an evacuation centre in Sendai, north-eastern Japan
Shattered: Vessels burn at the Bay of Kesennuma in Kesennuma, north-eastern Japan
Crippled: A Japanese military plane has its nose struck in a building at Matsushima air base, north-eastern Japan
Loss: Eiji Kanno, left, and his wife Matsuko are comforted rescue workers after finding out their 18-year-old daughter Mizuki is dead in Yamamoto, south of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture
Devastation: A train sits derailed in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefecture
Sumber:daily Mail
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