The death toll from a series of powerful earthquakes that hit western Japan rose to 55 on Tuesday as the country’s Prime Minister warned of a “race against time” to rescue more survivors.
In Suzu, a town of just over 5,000 households near the quake's epicentre, 90 per cent of houses may have been destroyed, according to its mayor Masuhiro Izumiya.
"The situation is catastrophic," he said.
A Coast Guard aircraft en route to deliver aid to the quake-hit region collided with a commercial airplane in Tokyo's Haneda airport on Tuesday, killing five Coast Guard crew. All 379 on board the Japan Airlines flight escaped.
Aftershocks continued to shake Ishikawa prefecture and nearby areas following the magnitude 7.6 quake that rocked Japan’s main island of Honshu on Monday, triggering tsunami warnings.
The quakes were reported to have reduced thousands of homes and buildings to rubble, with more than 50,000 people evacuated in the disaster.
Video filmed from helicopters showed widespread devastation, wrecked, smouldering houses, and boats lifted out of the sea by tsunami waves
Forty-eight people were confirmed dead in Ishikawa, the region that was the epicentre of the quake, but dozens of people were said to still be missing and unaccounted for.
Thousands of rescuers were Tuesday searching for people believed to be trapped beneath the rubble in towns and cities, but were hindered in reaching affected areas by badly damaged and blocked roads.
Many of those killed were in Wajima, a city on the remote northern tip of the Noto peninsula. Scores more have been injured.
Mr Kishida said rescuers were finding it very difficult to access the northern tip of the Noto peninsula where helicopter surveys had discovered many fires and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure.
“We have to race against time to search for and rescue victims of the disaster,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after a disaster response meeting.
“Very extensive damage has been confirmed, including numerous casualties, building collapses and fires,” he said.
Many rail services and flights into the area were suspended. More than 500 people were stranded at Noto’s airport which has closed due to cracks in its runway and access road and damage to its terminal building.
Water, power and mobile phone service were still down in some areas.
Some 33,000 households in areas affected by the quake braved freezing temperatures overnight due to a lack of electricity. Many cities were also without running water.
Terrified survivors braved sub-zero temperatures on the streets overnight, either unable to return to their homes or too fearful to go indoors for fear of more aftershocks.
The disaster is already Japan’s deadliest earthquake since at least 2016 when a 7.3 magnitude one struck in Kumamoto on the southern island of Japan, killing more than 220 people.
“I’ve never experienced a quake that powerful,” said Wajima resident Shoichi Kobayashi, 71, who was at home having a celebratory New Year’s meal with his wife and son when the quake struck, sending furniture flying across the dining room. “Even the aftershocks made it difficult to stand up straight,” he said, adding his family were sleeping in their car because they could not return to their badly damaged home.
Around 200 tremors have been detected since the quake first hit on Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which warned more strong shocks could hit in the coming days.
