Japan: Death toll from New Year's earthquake rises to 92

The number of missing stands at over 240, with the probability of rescuing further survivors fading quickly.

The official death toll from the earthquake in Japan on New Year's increased this Friday to 92 fatalities and the number of missing people stood at 242, according to reports given in the last few hours by the Japanese authorities.

In this way, hopes of finding new survivors are diminishing four days after the 7.5 magnitude earthquake, which triggered strong tremors, serious fires, and tsunami wave warnings

Japan is one of the countries most prone to earthquakes. The Asian country is located in an area known as the Ring of Fire, located on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean and characterized by concentrating some of the most important subduction zones in the world. It is a place where two tectonic plates collide by moving in opposite directions, a movement that produces collisions between both plates and releases energy that translates, among other things, into earthquakes like the one that the Japanese country suffered at the start of 2024.