MUSCAT: The Sultanate of Oman has expressed its sympathy and commiseration with the Government of Japan after the earthquake that hit Japan on Monday.
In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, Oman voiced its condolences to the families of deceased victims, along with its wishes of quick recovery for the injured.
Meanwhile, the powerful earthquake that hit Japan on New Year's Day killed at least 55 people, with rescue teams struggling in freezing temperatures on Tuesday to reach coastal areas where many are feared trapped under possibly thousands of destroyed homes.
In Suzu, a town of just over 5,000 households near the quake's epicentre, 90 per cent of houses may have been destroyed, according to its mayor Masuhiro Izumiya. "The situation is catastrophic," he said.
The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck on Monday afternoon, prompting people in western coastal areas to flee to higher ground as tsunami waves swept cars and houses into the water.
Around 200 tremors have been detected since the quake first hit on Monday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which warned that more strong shocks could hit in coming days.
A Coast Guard aircraft en route to deliver aid to the quake-hit region collided with a commercial airplane in Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday, killing five Coast Guard members. All 379 on board the Japan Airlines flight escaped.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the extent of damage from the quake was becoming "increasingly clear" more than 24 hours after it struck on the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture.
"The government has deployed emergency rescue teams from the Self-Defence Forces, police and fire departments to the area and is doing its utmost to save lives and rescue victims and survivors, but we have received reports that there are still many people waiting to be rescued under collapsed buildings."
Kishida said some 3,000 rescuers were finding it difficult to reach the northern tip of the peninsula where helicopter surveys had discovered many fires and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure.
Japan sits on the "Ring of Fire" arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Basin. It accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater, and each year experiences up to 2,000 quakes that can be felt.
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