Russia evacuates citizens from Japan

Sat Mar 19, 2011

The Russian government has evacuated thousands of its citizens from Japan following its massive earthquake and the explosion of a nuclear plant in the Asian country.

The Minister of the Russian Federation for Affairs of Civil Defense, Emergencies and Disaster Relief, Sergey Shoigu, announced that the evacuation of 6,000 Russian citizens from Japan is under way, IRNA reports.

Shoigu added that his country had prepared special flights for the transportation of Russian citizens from Japan to the eastern Russian cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

On March 11, Japan experienced an 8.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a tsunami.

The Japanese quake and tsunami set off nuclear problems by knocking out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the northeast coast.

Since then, four of the troubled plant's six reactor units have seen fires, explosions or partial meltdowns.

Nearly 7,200 people have been confirmed killed, while another 11,000 are still missing following Friday's earthquake.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170686.html.