Police hunt for bodies near nuclear plant

Hundreds of police in white protective suits are hunting for bodies in the rubble outside Japan’s tsunami-flooded nuclear plant – searching for the first time within a six-mile (10km) radius around the radiation-leaking complex.

Police said today that falling radiation levels have allowed them to search within a narrower radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant than before. But they are working very carefully to avoid tearing their protective gear.

Police believe the area may contain 1,000 bodies of missing victims from the March 11 tsunami. Overall on the north-eastern coast, at least 13,400 people were killed and more than 14,800 are listed as missing.

Inside the plant, workers are running into fresh setbacks in their struggle to stabilise reactors whose cooling systems were disabled by the tsunami.