Tokyo runs short of supplies as panic hits

A RADIATION cloud drifted from an earthquake-stricken nuclear power plant toward Tokyo yesterday sparking panic in one of the world’s biggest and most densely populated cities.

Women and children packed into the departure lounge at an airport, supermarkets ran low on rice and other supplies and frightened residents, tourists and expatriates either stayed indoors or simply left the city.

“I’m not too worried about another earthquake. It’s radiation that scares me,” said Masashi Yoshida, cradling his five-month-old daughter Hana. The nail-biting eased in the afternoon after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano appeared on national television saying radiation levels at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear-power complex had fallen dramatically since morning.