[ad_1]
The toll of a powerful earthquake that caused landslides in northern Japan rose to 35 on Saturday as tens of thousands of rescuers crossed the mud in search of survivors.
The majority of the dead are from the small rural town of Atsuma, where a group of homes was destroyed by the collapse of a magnitude 6.6 earthquake force hill, causing deep brown scars in the landscape .
The NHK public television channel said that 35 of them were dead, and that five people were still missing in the city.
According to the local government of the island of Hokkaido, more than 600 people were slightly injured.
"We have never had landslides here," said Akira Matsushita, who lost her brother to Atsuma.
"I could not believe until I saw it with my own eyes," he told Asahi television. "When I saw it, I knew that no one could survive."
According to the government's main spokesman, some 40,000 rescuers, including members of the self-defense forces, were recruited to search for survivors using bulldozers, sniffer dogs and 75 helicopters.
"They do their best all the time," Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would meet the earthquake survivors in Hokkaido on Sunday, according to Jiji Press.
The three million homes in Hokkaido lost power when Thursday's earthquake damaged a power plant supplying electricity to the region, but Abe said the current was largely restored.
"Thanks to the hard work to increase electricity production throughout the night, the number of homes without electricity has decreased to 20,000," he said at a cabinet meeting.
Abe said the government will release emergency funds to provide food, water and fuel for electricity generators in hospitals.
A total of 31 000 households still have no water and about 16 000 people have been evacuated to shelters.
The earthquake also collapsed a handful of homes and walls in the main regional town of Sapporo.
International flights to Sapporo's main airport resumed on Saturday, while high-speed trains began circulating the day before.
The earthquake was the latest in a series of natural disasters to hit the country.
Western parts of the country are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon that hit Japan in a quarter of a century, killing 11 people and shutting down the main regional airport.
Japan is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 was devastating under the Pacific Ocean and the resulting tsunami caused considerable damage and left thousands dead.
