Death toll reaches 100 as survivors are found in homes smashed by western Japan earthquakes

Some survivors who had clung to life for days were freed from collapsed homes. A man was pulled out 72 hours after a series of powerful quakes started rattling Japan’s western coast.

The death toll from a major earthquake in western Japan reached 100 on January 6, as rescue workers fought aftershocks to carefully pull people from the rubble.

Deaths had reached 98 earlier in the day, but two more deaths were reported in Anamizu, while officials in Ishikawa prefecture, the hardest-hit region, held their daily meeting to discuss strategy and damages.

Some survivors who had clung to life for days were freed from collapsed homes. A man was pulled out 72 hours after a series of powerful quakes started rattling Japan’s western coast.

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The number of missing was lowered to 211 as of Saturday, after it shot up two days ago.

An older man was found alive Wednesday in a collapsed home in Suzu, one of the hardest-hit cities in Ishikawa Prefecture. His daughter called out, “Dad, dad,” as a flock of firefighters got him out on a stretcher, praising him for holding on for so long after Monday’s 7.6 magnitude earthquake.

Others were forced to wait while rescuers searched for loved ones.