Hanging on for dear life: Tsunami victims who scaled a 40ft mast on roof to escape wave which swept away colleagues
Hanging on for their lives as the tsunami crashes past them, this is the dramatic moment Japanese survivors clung to a mast and roof rails as waves swept away a building beneath them.
As tsunami waters recede from some Japanese towns, the image taken the day the disaster struck shows the group of 30 people forced to climb an antenna tower in Minamisanriku, northeastern Japan.
Just moments later, a devastating wave crashed into the roof of the three-storey building, sweeping away all but nine of rooftop group. The helpless plight of the survivors is the latest setback as Japan still struggles to contain the fallout from the March 11 disaster.
The tsunami-ravaged Fukushima nuclear plant is now spewing radiation into seawater off Japan's coastline measuring 7.5million times the legal limit, while the plant's operator said it will pay 'condolence money' to aid those forced to evacuate its surrounding area. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) was forced on Monday to start releasing 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive seawater after it ran out of storage capacity for more highly contaminated water.
Japan's economic growth also faces massive threats after the Fukushima fallout caused widespread blackouts among the country's supply chains and global firms.
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