Terrifying pictures reveal full horror of Japan's worst quake

Japanese rescue workers, emergency services and army units are fighting to save lives and contain the damage after the sixth most powerful earthquake in recorded history struck the island nation yesterday.

More than 1,000 are feared dead after the quake, which measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, shook buildings to their foundations, opened up cracks in the ground and sent a 33ft tsunami crashing on the the north-east coast.

Stranded survivors desperately tried to call for help by writing SOS signs across the roofs of the few undamaged buildings where they have taken shelter, while others surveyed the devastation, stunned.

Fires continue to burn unabated across large parts of the country as damaged oil refineries and gas works billow black smoke into the sky.

 

Endeavour: Rescue workers carry a body found in the debris in the town of Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, left, while stranded survivors use whatever they can find to escape the ruins of the disaster in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture

 

Save our souls: Stranded people wait to be rescued from the roof of a building in Miyagi Prefecture

 

Catastrophe: A soldier carries an elderly man on his back to a shelter in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture

 

Cataclysm: Local residents look at debris brought by the huge tsunami in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture

 

Run aground: A container ship stranded, swept half ashore, in Sendai, north-eastern Japan

 

Crippled: A Japanese military plane has its nose struck in a building at Matsushima air base, north-eastern Japan

 

Levelled: A man rides a bicycle through a debris-strewn street in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture

 

Disbelief: A man takes a photo of a car swept on to the roof of a building by the tsunami in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture

 

Comfort: Survivors hug each other in an evacuation center set up in a school gym in Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture

 

Alive: Survivors head to an evacuation centre in Sendai, north-eastern Japan

 

Chasm: A passing car keeps a safe distance from the giant rip in the road in Futaba, Fukushima prefecture

 

Carnage: A man cycles past a car overturned by the tsunami on a street in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture

 

Inferno: Flames engulf buildings in an industrial complex in Sendai, north-eastern Japan

 

Cut off: A bridge undergoing construction is damaged together with another bridge in Namegata City, Ibaraki Prefecture

Unusable: Vehicles are piled up beside homes in a residential area in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture

Ruins: Survivors pick their way through the debris from destroyed homes after in Sendai, north-eastern Japan

Blaze: Thick black smoke rises from burning buildings in a factory zone in Sendai, north-eastern Japan

Duty: Self-Defense Force officers rescue people from the flood waters by boat in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture

Precarious: A huge trailer stuck in an narrow canal leans over debris at a port in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture

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Devastation: A train sits derailed in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefecture

Loss: Eiji Kanno, left, and his wife Matsuko are comforted rescue workers after finding out their 18-year-old daughter Mizuki is dead in Yamamoto, south of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture