Death toll in Japan may top 20 000 at least

PanARMENIAN.Net - Police in Japan say 15,000 people may have been killed in a single prefecture, Miyagi, by the huge quake and tsunami which struck on March 11.

The official death toll has now risen to 8,450, with 12,931 people missing. It is looking increasingly clear that the death toll will top 20,000 people at least, BBC reports.

The authorities have begun building temporary homes for some of the hundreds of thousands of people - including an estimated 100,000 children - still sheltering at emergency evacuation centers. Many survivors have been enduring freezing temperatures without water, electricity, fuel or enough food.

Radiation levels have risen in the capital Tokyo, 240km (150 miles) to the south, but officials say the levels recorded are not harmful. Radioactive contamination has been found in some food products from the Fukushima prefecture, Japanese officials say. The iodine was found in milk and spinach tested between 16 and 18 March and could be harmful to human health if ingested, the officials said.

International nuclear experts at the IAEA say that, although radioactive iodine has a short half-life of about eight days, there is a short-term risk to human health if it is ingested, and it can cause damage to the thyroid.