Rescuers are still working to help people in Japan after a strong earthquake on New Year’s Day killed at least 62 people.
Houses fell down, buildings started burning, and roads were badly broken, making it hard for rescue teams to help.
The middle of the big earthquake was in the Noto peninsula in central Japan.
The Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said that emergency teams are working quickly to save people who are still alive.
He also said that 3,000 people are trying to reach parts of the Noto peninsula to try to help. “Helicopter surveys revealed lots of fires and damage to buildings and infrastructure. ” Wajima, a city at the top of Noto, can’t be reached by road.
In Suzu, a city by the coast in Ishikawa prefecture, almost all of the homes were “completely or nearly completely destroyed”, according to the mayor, Masushiro Izumiya, who told the news outlet Kyodo.
The Japanese army is giving things like food, water, and blankets to people who had to leave their homes. The government said 57,360 people had to leave their homes.
Tens of thousands of meals are being brought to the area where people need them.
Aftershocks kept happening on Tuesday. Yoshimasa Hayashi, the top government official, told people to watch out for more strong earthquakes in the next week.
Ishikawa, which is 155 kilometers (96. 3 miles) south of the Noto peninsula, had a 4. 9 earthquake on Tuesday afternoon.
The big tsunami warnings from Japan’s government on Monday were changed to be less serious later. By Tuesday, all warnings about a tsunami along the Sea of Japan were taken away, so there was no more danger of a tsunami happening.
People living in the area of Japan that was affected by the earthquake have been talking about what happened during the quake, which went on for a few minutes.
An 82-year-old man from Nanao named Toshio Iwahama said to the BBC that his old wooden house partially fell down. He said that even though he had been through many earthquakes, he had never felt one as strong as this.
41-year-old Emma Ward from Britain was on a skiing holiday in a place called Hakuba. She said that the earthquake hit suddenly and they had to take cover under a table in a cafe. She said to the BBC that the shaking was so strong that people ran out of the building. “The scariest part of the earthquake was not knowing how bad it was going to get. ” “It’s really scary,” said Ms.
Many people also said that the earthquake made them think of the terrible earthquake and tsunami in 2011. That one killed 18,000 people and caused a nuclear accident in Fukushima.
A Japan Airlines plane caught fire on Tuesday because it crashed into a coastguard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. This happened as the plane was heading to help with the earthquake relief.
Five people on the coastguard plane died, but all 379 passengers and crew from the Japan Airlines plane were able to get away safely.
Japan has a lot of earthquakes because it’s on the Pacific Ring of Fire where tectonic plates meet.
Japan has made a really good warning system for tsunamis because they are always worried about earthquakes.