Japan's Search for Bodies Enters Evacuation Zone

Officers race against time as bodies decompose
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 7, 2011 9:19 AM CDT
Japan's Search for Bodies Enters Evacuation Zone
Japan's Fukushima police officers, wearing suits to protect them from radiation, search for victims in Minami Soma, inside the deserted evacuation zone.   (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Clad in protective suits, some 340 police officers began the search for bodies within the 12-mile evacuation zone surrounding the Fukushima plant today. Nearly four weeks have passed since the earthquake, and some 4,200 who lived within the zone remain missing, reports the New York Times. Officials now say there's not much time left to locate and identify the dead. "We have to find bodies now as they are decomposing," said a police rep. "This is a race against time and against the threat of nuclear radiation." (More Japan earthquake stories.)

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