Sun rises on Japan after earthquake horror

Entire towns reduced to rubble, thousands feared dead and a country in turmoil - this was the scene of destruction in Japan today as it mounted its biggest ever rescue mission following the biggest disaster in its history.

The scale of mass devastation caused by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake, which sparked a deadly 23ft tsunami that smashed towns, airports and highways in its way, became clearer today.

Smoke billowed into the air from the wreckages of what were once towns and villages, with hundreds feared dead beneath the rubble and even more left homeless.

The official death toll stood at 413, while 784 people were missing and 1,128 were injured.

Normally busy towns were at a standstill today as the full devastation left by the disaster became clear.

In Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, a main road was left impassable as it was covered with vehicles and rubble.

Cars, lorries and even houses washed away by the tsunami across the region have now been dumped in piles like discarded toys.

A ship that had been tossed about like a cork in the Pacific lay dumped on a pier in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake's epicentre.

Crumpled cars lay amid the wreckage of buildings, covering entire roads.

The Haramachi generating power plant in Minami Soma, Fukushima, was completely destroyed in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Bewildered survivors wrapped in blankets walked through paths with utter devastation replacing what was once thriving settlements.

More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures, or states, the national police agency said. Since the quake, more than one million households have not had water, mostly concentrated in north east.

Even in a country that is used to dealing with earthquakes, this is devastation of an unknown scale following the killer tsunami.

The quake, measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, was around 8,000 times more powerful than the one that devastated Christchurch in New Zealand last month, and the fifth largest recorded since 1900.

It hit at 2.46pm (5.46am GMT) local time yesterday, unleashing a tsunami that reached heights of more than 20ft.

It was followed by more than 50 aftershocks, with a further earthquake measuring 6.6 hitting the mountainous central part of the country.

The main quake struck at a depth of six miles about 80 miles off the eastern coast, about 240 miles north east of Tokyo. It shook dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile stretch of coast and tall buildings swayed in the capital.

The tsunami which followed swept inland about six miles in some areas, swallowing boats, homes, cars, trees and even small airplanes.

"The tsunami was unbelievably fast," said Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old lorry driver who was inside his sturdy four-ton rig when the wave hit the port town of Sendai.

"Smaller cars were being swept around me," he said. All I could do was sit in my lorry."

His rig ruined, he joined the steady flow of survivors who walked along the road away from the sea and back into the city today. Smoke from at least one large fire could be seen in the distance.

Smashed cars and small airplanes were jumbled up against buildings near the local airport, several miles from the shore.

Felled trees and wooden debris lay everywhere as rescue workers coasted on boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of debris.

Hundreds lined up outside of supermarkets, and petrol stations were swamped with cars. The situation was similar in scores of other towns and cities along the 1,300-mile-long eastern coastline hit by the tsunami.

Roads to the worst-hit coastal areas buckled, telephone lines snapped. Train service was suspended in north-eastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serves 10 million people a day. Untold numbers of people were stranded in stations or roaming the streets. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed indefinitely.

A ship with 80 dock workers was swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi prefecture. All on the ship was believed to be safe, although the vessel had sprung a leak and was taking on some water, Japan's coast guard said.

In the coastal town of Minami-soma, about 1,800 houses were destroyed or ravaged, a Defence Ministry spokeswoman said. Fire burned into the night in a large section of Kesennuma, a city of 70,000 people in Miyagi.

Police reported finding between 200 and 300 bodies in the north eastern city of Sendai. Japan Railways said it could not trace four trains along the north eastern coast.

A relief mission of unprecedented proportions was under way today. An untold number of bodies were also believed to be buried in the rubble and debris. Rescue workers had yet to reach the hardest-hit areas.

More than 50,000 troops, 300 planes and 40 ships have been mobilised by the Japanese government following yesterday's catastrophic disaster, amid fears that more than a 1,000 people have perished.

Soldiers carried survivors to safety from wrecked buildings, often on their backs as they trudged through mud and debris.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advised against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and the north east of Japan, whilst it assesses the damage caused.

UK teams of experienced disaster response personnel are also on standby after making offers of assistance to the Japanese Government.

US military vessels and aircraft carriers have already been sent to the disaster-stricken archipelago along with relief teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.

The entire Pacific was put on tsunami alert following the quake. Ports and beaches were temporarily shut and islanders and coastal residents ordered to higher ground up and down Latin America's Pacific seaboard ahead of the tsunami surge triggered by the killer Japanese quake. But it did little damage.

By the time the tsunami waves travelled across the wide Pacific Ocean and into the southern hemisphere, only slightly higher waters than normal came ashore in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia, Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, Chile's Easter Island and Peru and Chile's mainlands.

Waves as high as six feet crashed into South America into today - in some cases sending the Pacific surging into streets - after coastal dwellers rushed to close ports and schools and evacuated several hundred thousand people.

Major evacuations were ordered in Ecuador and Chile, where hundreds of thousands of people moved out of low-lying coastal areas.

After the devastating tsunami Chile suffered following its major quake a year ago, authorities weren't taking any chances.

By Becky Sharpe