Death toll reaches 94 as bad weather, tremors hamper Japan quake rescue

Hampered by bad weather and damaged roads, Japanese rescuers search for 222 people still missing four days after a devastating earthquake as the death toll approached 100.

Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble on Thursday, but hopes of finding other survivors after the 7.5 magnitude quake on New Year's Day are fading with rain, snow and falling temperatures forecast in the coming days.

Thousands of rescuers from all over Japan have been battling aftershocks and roads littered with gaping holes and blocked by frequent landslides in the central Ishikawa region to reach hundreds of people in stranded communities.

On Thursday afternoon, 72 hours after the quake, the two older women were miraculously pulled alive from the remains of their homes in Wajima, thanks to a sniffer dog.

The port city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula was one of the worst hit, with a pungent smell of soot still in the air and faint columns of smoke visible from a huge fire that destroyed hundreds of structures on the first day.

Authorities said on Friday afternoon that 222 people were unaccounted for, down from an earlier count of 242, including 121 in Wajima and 82 in Suzu.

The death toll was raised to 94 from 92, with 464 people injured.

Plight of survivors

"I was relaxing on New Year's Day when the quake happened. My relatives were all there and we were having fun," Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, told AFP amid the burnt-out cars, wrecked buildings and fallen telegraph poles.

"The house itself is standing but it's far from livable now. I don't have the space in my mind to think about the future," he told AFP.

Around 30,000 households were without electricity in the Ishikawa region, and 89,800 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.

Hundreds of people were in government shelters.

"We are doing our best to conduct rescue operations at the isolated villages. However, the reality is that the isolation has not been resolved to the extent that we would like," regional governor Hiroshi Hase said on Friday.