MOSCOW, March 23 (RIA Novosti) – The death toll in the Japanese earthquake and tsunami grew to more than 9,300 in the past 24 hours, Xinhua said on Wednesday citing police figures.
According to Japan’s National Police Agency data, 9,301 people were killed and 12,645 remain unaccounted for as of 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT).
A fresh tremor measuring 6.6 rattled Japan’s northeastern Fukushima prefecture on Tuesday, the strongest so far in a series of aftershocks following the 9.0-magnitude March 11 earthquake.
More than 160 Russian rescuers, who worked in the worst damaged Japanese cities of Sendai and Niigata, have been returning to Russia on Tuesday and Wednesday.