CNA, 5January 2024

ANAMIZU, Japan: The death toll from a devastatingearthquake in central Japan rose to 92 on Friday (Jan 5), regionalauthorities said, with the number of missing jumping to 242.

Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble, but hopes offinding other survivors faded as thousands of rescuers raced against the clockfour days after the 7.5 magnitude quake on New Year's Day.

Thousands of rescuers from all over Japan have been battlingaftershocks and roads littered with gaping holes and blocked by frequentlandslides in the Ishikawa region to reach hundreds of people in strandedcommunities.

On Thursday afternoon, 72 hours after the quake, the twoolder women were miraculously pulled alive from the remains of their homes inWajima, one of them thanks to a sniffer dog called Jennifer.

The port city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula was one of theworst hit, with a pungent smell of soot still in the air and faint columns ofsmoke visible from a huge fire that destroyed hundreds of structures on thefirst day.

"I was relaxing on New Year's Day when the quakehappened. My relatives were all there and we were having fun," HiroyukiHamatani, 53, told AFP amid the burnt-out cars, wrecked buildings and fallentelegraph poles.

"The house itself is standing but it's far from livablenow ... I don't have the space in my mind to think about the future," hetold AFP.

Photo Caption:A woman, whose house was damaged by an earthquake carries her belongingsas she heads to an evacuation centre in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, Jan5, 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Kim Kyung-hoon)