The number of casualties from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that battered Japan is snowballing.

Japanese media say that over one-thousand have been killed so far.

Some ten-thousand residents in Miyagi Prefecture, the hardest hit area, are unaccounted for.

Rescue efforts are concentrated in this area, but casualty numbers are expected to grow.

According to official estimates by the Japanese police, 680 have died, 640 are missing and 14-hundred are injured as of Saturday night at midnight.

Also 12-thousand-800 homes have been partially or completely damaged. Property damage is also expected to continuously rise.