(Update) Death Toll from Quake May Top 10,000: Miyagi Police Chief

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)--Views have grown that the latest massive earthquake that hit northeastern and eastern Japan will turn out to be the worst natural disaster in Japan since the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, which left some 100,000 people dead or missing in Tokyo and surrounding areas.
The death toll from Friday's jolt will undoubtedly exceed 10,000, Naoto Takeuchi, police chief in Miyagi Prefecture, told a disaster relief meeting Sunday of the prefecture, which was hit most severely by the shake in the northeastern Japan region of Tohoku.
The same day, the Japan Meteorological Agency revised up the magnitude of the earthquake from 8.8 to 9.0, the largest on record in Japan and the world's fourth largest.
The great quake was caused by successive ruptures of three gigantic faults in a complex manner, an extremely rare event, officials of the agency said.
Miyagi police announced the same day that 515 have died in the quake and many are still missing. Besides, the police newly found 200 bodies in the Nobiru district of Higashimatsushima and Self-Defense Forces troops have recovered 137 of them. There is also information that many bodies are floating off the coast of Ishinomaki.
The Miyagi prefectural government said almost all houses in Pacific coast town Minami Sanriku were washed out, with the government failing to establish communication with 9,500 of some 17,000 residents in the town.
According to the National Police Agency's estimates as of 7:30 p.m. Sunday Japan time, the earthquake claimed a total of 1,353 lives in 12 of 47 prefectures in the country, including 502 in Iwate Prefecture and 285 in Fukushima Prefecture, while 1,085 remained missing.
Because there are 200 to 300 unconfirmed bodies in Wakabayashi Ward of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, the combined number of deaths and missing has already topped 2,500.
The police agency also estimated the number of injuries at 1,743 in 16 prefectures and that of evacuees at 275,700, including 131,700 in Fukushima Prefecture.
The Meteorological Agency warned that aftershocks with magnitudes of 7 and higher will occur with a 70 pct chance within three days from 10 a.m. Sunday and with a 50 pct chance in the following three days.
The number of aftershocks with magnitude of 5 or higher has already topped 150, an unprecedented figure, with their epicenters located in a 500-kilometer-long and 200-kilometer-wide zone stretching south from an area off the coast of Iwate Prefecture, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the agency removed all tsunami advisories across the country at 5:58 p.m., while noting it will issue warnings again if there is a bid aftershock.