A two-year-old boy was on Wednesday rescued from underneath rubble four days after he, his sister and mother were buried in their car by a landslide set off by an earthquake in north-west Japan.
Firefighters pulled Yuta Minagawa to safety but were unable to save his mother, Takako Minagawa, who was pronounced dead after being airlifted to hospital.
Attempts to rescue his three-year-old sister, Mayu, continued on Wednesday night as darkness fell. Local media reported that the girl was trapped beneath the vehicle and was not showing any signs of life.
The family’s white van was buried under rocks and mud on Saturday afternoon when a series of powerful earthquakes struck the Niigata prefecture.
The quakes, which measured up to 6,8 on the Richter scale, killed at least 31 people, injured more than 3 000 and forced almost 100 000 to sleep outside or in emergency shelters.
They were the strongest earthquakes to strike Japan since January 1995, when a quake with a magnitude of 7,2 killed more than 6 400 people in the western city of Kobe.
The area, about 240km northwest of Tokyo, was hit by another powerful tremor yesterday morning.
About 1 000 people were briefly evacuated from the main railway station in Nagaoka amid fears that it was about to collapse. The meteorological agency warned that strong aftershocks could be on the way.
Five people were injured in Wednesday’s quake, which caused further damage to buildings.
Relief workers have struggled to get emergency supplies to isolated villages in the mountainous region, and emergency shelters are over-crowded. About 45 000 homes still lack running water.
Minagawa (39) and her two children were on their way home from visiting friends when the first earthquake struck on Saturday evening. Her husband, who was in Tokyo, has been trying desperately to find his family. His hopes were raised on Tuesday when the van’s bumper was spotted poking out of the mud.
Rescue workers were stunned to find Yuta trying to stand up in a space between the van and surrounding rocks. He was pulled from the rubble, apparently conscious, and flown to hospital.
”It’s a miracle that they are still alive after four days buried under a serious landslide like that, with huge rocks falling down on them,” said Mikio Kawai, a spokesperson for the Niigata government.
Firefighters had heard his mother calling out for help but could not find a pulse when she was pulled from the car.
Tens of thousands of people faced another night sleeping rough on Wednesday as temperatures dropped to below 5C.
Relief workers said elderly victims of the quake would be at greater risk of exposure, fatigue, heart attacks and strokes the longer they remained out in the open. – Guardian Unlimited Â