The number of people confirmed dead in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan has hit 6,911, surpassing the toll from the massive tremor in Kobe in 1995, police said yesterday.
The number of people unaccounted for rose slightly to 10,316, putting the combined total of dead and missing at 17,227, the National Police Agency said in its latest update. A total of 2,356 people were injured.
In January 1995, a 7.2-magnitude quake struck the western Japanese port city of Kobe, killing 6,434 people.
The March 11 quake is now Japan's deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 142,000 people.
The toll from the disaster one week ago has increased steadily in recent days, and reports suggest it could eventually be much higher.
Earlier, the death toll was likely to hit 10,000, the mayor of a coastal town said.
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