Over 300 people killed in earthquake and tsunami in Japan

PanARMENIAN.Net - A massive tsunami triggered by Japan's most powerful earthquake in nearly a century on March 11 wrought devastation in northeast coastal Japan, sweeping away houses, ships and cars and set ablaze several buildings, killing over 300 people.

Around 200-300 bodies were found in Wakabayashi area of Sendai city, close to the epicenter of the 8.9 magnitude quake as the tidal waves carried debris of buildings, overturned ships, cars and vehicles that came their way deep into the mainland, Kyodo news agency said.

Over 500 people were reported missing after the quake which unleashed 33-foot tidal waves in the country's northeast coast, public broadcaster NHK reported. The toll could go up significantly as reports of damage trickled in.

Television images showed fires raging in several building complexes as also a major petrochemical complex in Sendai. The tsunami also flooded the Sendai airport, according to economictimes.indiatimes.com.

A wall of water several kilometers wide triggered by the earthquake, the most powerful since the 1923 tremor in Great Kanto area in Tokyo and its vicinity which was 7.9 on Richter scale and had killed more than 140,000 people, carried all that it destroyed deep into the mainland.

The quake struck at 2:46 pm local time and alerts were issued across the Pacific, including areas as far away as South America, US west coast, Canada and Alaska.