The Japanese authorities say they cannot gather around 1,000 dead bodies scattered around Japan’s troubled Fukushima power plant because of fears of radiation contamination, Kyodo news agency reported on Friday.
The bodies of those killed in devastating earthquake and tsunami that swept the region in mid-March were contaminated when radiation began leaking from the damaged reactors at the plant.
“After people died their bodies were exposed to high levels of radiation,” a police source said.
Experts partially confirmed the information, saying they had found high radiation levels in a body found in the village of Okuma, five kilometers from the power plant.
Police warned that collecting the bodies would spread contamination outside of the exclusion zone, set at 20 kilometers.
Over 11,000 people died and 16,500 are still missing from the twin disaster.
MOSCOW, April 1 (RIA Novosti)