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The Times & The Sunday Times
The Times & The Sunday Times
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A quake in tweets

Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor of The Times, was on the 7th floor of a building in Tokyo when the earthquake struck. Here is his day in the tweets he sent.
The Times
Cars and airplanes swept by a tsunami at Sendai Airport
Cars and airplanes swept by a tsunami at Sendai Airport
REUTERS
The Times

0546 GMT Another earhquake in Tokyo

Strong one

strongest I’ve ever known in 16 yers

I’m fine. A frighteningly strong quake. Afteshocks. Fires round Tokyo bay.

0745 - 0845 GMT Dramatic tsunami footage from NE Japan, cars and boats washed inland. Sendai Airport is inundated. Oil fire on Tokyo Bay.

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But central Tokyo calm and undamaged. In 30 mins stroll in Ginza I saw one cracked window and a few walls.

Sems to be just one fire in an oil facility in Chiba Prefecture.

Flames gushing from steel works in Chiba City.

Reports of dozens injured at graduation ceremony at Kudan Kaikan bldg in central Tokyo. Anyone close enough to confirm this?

Eleven nuke power plants shut down in Japan. No problems reported after quakes.

I’ve lost count of aftershocks. 15 or more. Latest one was from a different epicentre to 1st big quake, accdng to Jpn TV

0845 - 945 GMT Spoke to an anxious Rosemary Church on CNN. I think I was a bit too phlegmatic for them.

No reports of deaths in Tokyo so far. My hunch is that there will be scores, perhaps low hundreds in NE Japan, but no more. Not megadeath.

Missing Abroad (L Blckman Trust) offering assistance to people concerned about fnd or fmily affected by earthquake. UK Hotline 0207 047 5060

To anyone struggling to get through to Tokyo - use Skype. Internet in Tokyo seems fine.

Old people’s home collapsed in Fukushima. Five people found dead and around ten are under the collapsed building.

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0945 - 1045 GMT Tokyo stations clogged with commuters unable to travel home because trains still stopped. Convenience stores selling out of bento meal boxes

Shibuya district dense with people. Tens of thousands queue for bus.

NHK TV at 18:30: 23 dead from earthquake, and many missing and injured.

Travel chaos. Japan railways trains cancelled all day

Another aftershock

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1045 - 1145 GMT Unconfirmed, on Japanese TV: from Shinchi town, Fukushima prefecture: 500 houses in five coastal areas swept away by tsunami.

Latest NHK death toll 61 at 2030 hrs

Fukushima nuclear power plant struggling to cool reactor. Local evacuation ordered - Nikkei

yokohama arena is being opened for stranded quake commuters

3000 people evacuated from close to Fukushima nuke power statio

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30,000+ people evacuated coastal areas nr Sendai. All Tokyo high schools opened to the stranded. Had my doubts at first - but this is huge.

1145 - 1245 GMT Government requests residents within 3km of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant to evacuate, and to those up to 10km to stay inside

NHK latest: 90 plus dead

Unconfirmed: about 200 to 300 dead bodies found floating at Arahama in Sendai

Frightening images of fires burning out of control in Kessenuma city

Police in Sendai confirm 200-300 bodies in Wakabayashi Ward

1245 - 1345 GMT Fukushima nuclear plant under control: government spokesman