The number of dead and missing in Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11 reached 16,600, Japanese officials said on March 18, Lenta.ru reports.

The National Police Agency of Japan confirmed 6,405 deaths, over 10.000 people are unaccounted for.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, on March 11, the biggest earthquake (9 magnitude) in the recent years hit the northeast of Japan, triggering a 10-meter tsunami and followed by several powerful aftershocks. The epicenter is located 373 to north-east from Japan’s capital, Tokyo at the depth of 24 kilometers. A massive earthquake damaged cooling functions of the Fukushima nuclear plant, making the operator to pour seawater into reactors and let out radioactive air into atmosphere.