by Kiyoshi Takenaka
WAJIMA, Japan (Reuters) – The death toll from the earthquakes that shook Japan earlier this week stood at 110 dead and more than 200 missing on Saturday, according to the Ishikawa prefecture website.
These are the deadliest earthquakes in almost eight years in the archipelago.
“I am well aware of the extent of the damage caused,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a message sent when the threshold of 100 deaths was crossed.
The earthquakes, which reached a magnitude of 7.6, destroyed infrastructure and left 22,000 homes without electricity in the Hokuriku region.
The search for survivors continued for the sixth day in a row, while more than 30,000 people waited for help, the arrival of which was hampered, in particular, by the poor state of the roads.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Wajima and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; French version Camille Raynaud and Elizabeth Pineau)
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