Death Toll from Japan Earthquake Hits 161

The death toll from Japan’s devastating New Year’s Day earthquake has risen from to more than 160.

Efforts are continuing to find more than 100 people who remain missing a week later.

But bad weather is hampering rescuers- with heavy rain and snow triggering warnings of landslides and building collapse.

The 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the remote Noto peninsula – toppling buildings and sparking a major fire.

The majority of the deaths have happened in the hard-hit cities of Wajima and Suzu.

Meanwhile, the number of people missing has dropped from 195 to just over 100.

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The death toll has jumped from the 120 reported on Sunday.

As of early Monday local time, more than 1,200 tremors had been recorded since New Year’s Day, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports.

That means relief materials have been slow to reach areas suffering water and power outages.

Around 20,700 households in the wider Ishikawa region remained without electricity on Sunday. More than 66,100 households were without water.

The priority has been to rescue people under the rubble, and to reach isolated communities, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in an interview with NHK on Sunday.

The military has sent small groups of troops to each of the isolated communities on foot, he said.

The government has also deployed various police and fire department helicopters to reach them, Kishida added.

Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year, though most cause no damage because of strict building codes in place for more than four decades.

But many structures are older, especially in rapidly aging communities in rural areas like Noto.