Japan earthquake: Eerie search for bodies near epicentre

The fishing town of Wajima on Japan's west coast has been severely damaged. The remnants of its old marketplace are still smouldering, as if an explosion had just occurred. A fire broke out when the New Year's Day earthquake hit, and spread instantly, incinerating the wooden stalls and some surrounding homes. Firefighters are still combing the smoking debris, checking for unextinguished flames.

Throughout the town, traditional wooden homes lie splintered on the ground, collapsed; not made to withstand Japan's frequent earthquakes. It has taken us two days to reach the epicentre of the earthquake, the country's most powerful in 12 years. We have lost count of how many times we were forced to turn around because the roads had been so severely severed. This has hampered the rescue efforts. The search team with sniffer dogs arrived in Wajima just hours before us. They spent the afternoon searching the collapsed homes, one at a time, not knowing whether there were people inside each house or not.

One of the residents, Keiko Kato, ran to greet the rescue workers. She believed her husband's relatives were trapped inside one of the houses - his 95-year-old aunt, her niece and her daughter. She had not heard from them since the quake, and had already searched most of the evacuation centres in vain. But the house was so destroyed, the dog could not go deep enough in, and the team had to move on. 'At least it didn't find a body,' she said, adding: 'There's still hope. ' Another resident arrived, pleading with the workers to check his family's house next.