LOC14:07
11:07 GMT
LONDON, March 11 (KUNA) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday
the Japanese earthquake was a "terrible reminder of the destructive power of
nature."
He added: "Everyone should be thinking of the country and its people and I
have asked immediately that our Government look at what we can do to help."
Cameron was speaking in Brussels where he was attending an emergency summit
of EU leaders called discuss the crisis in Libya, the BBC reported.
The earthquake which rocked Japan today was 8,000 times more powerful than
the one that devastated Christchurch in New Zealand last month, experts said.
The quake, measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, unleashed a huge tsunami
that crashed into Japan's eastern coastline, sweeping boats, cars, buildings
and tons of debris miles inland.
Television pictures showed walls of water over 13ft high swamping vast
areas of low-lying farmland with motorists racing to escape the deluge.
In downtown Tokyo - hundreds of miles away from the quake - large buildings
shook violently and workers poured into the streets for safety, press reports
said.
The quake struck at 2:46 p.m. local-time and was followed by 12 powerful
aftershocks, seven of them at least 6.3 on the Richter scale.
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