Fuji TV reporting that 10,000 people are missing in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi

In Japan, the death toll in the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami has risen to 1,700. The Kyodo news agency said, the number of people, who have died in Friday's double disaster that devastated Japan's north-western coast, has touched the 1,700. There are fears that the death toll will rise with Fuji TV reporting that 10,000 people are missing in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi. One report said, four whole trains have disappeared and are yet to be located. 

The building housing the main reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant in northern Japan, 250 km north of Tokyo, exploded yesterday leading to radiation leaks. At least three people have been exposed to radiation. Public broadcaster NHK reported that the three were randomly chosen for examination out of some 90 bed-ridden patients in the town of Fatuba-machi. 

The government has declared an atomic emergency and tens of thousands of people living within 20 kilometres of the plant have been asked to evacuate their homes. The operator of the nuclear plant said the container surrounding the reactor has not been damaged in the explosion. 

Japanese nuclear scientists confirmed that the plant is experiencing a nuclear meltdown. The loss of cooling water following power failure is leading to the meltdown of the reactor. Radioactive materials--cesium and iodine--were also detected around the No 1 rector of the plant. People going outside were told to avoid exposing their skins and to cover their faces with masks and wet towels. 

Kyodo quoting police sources said that another nuclear plant adjacent to the one which exploded was also malfunctioning with radiation levels reaching almost 1,000 times the normal level. 

The authorities said that an emergency had been declared at all five nuclear reactors as the units had lost cooling ability. The US dispatched plane loads of coolants to the disaster struck nation. Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency described the situation at the Fukushima plant dire. 

We spoke to Japan's Public Broadcaster NHK's Hindi Service Correspondent Lochini Asthana in Tokyo about the latest situation there :

Rescue teams from the US, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other countries were set to arrive in Japan, after 50 nations offered support following the powerful earthquake.