Japan death toll tops 10,000: Kyodo

OSAKA: The death toll from an earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northern coast of Japan to 10,000 head on Friday, two weeks after the disaster, Kyodo news reported.

The National Police, responsible for the compilation of statistics from different prefectures, could not immediately confirm that figure.

There are fears of a much higher toll of the disaster that destroyed entire towns along the Pacific coast of the country's main island of Honshu.

In its report Thursday, the National Police said that 9,811 people were confirmed dead and 17,541 officially reported missing - a total of 27,352 - than 21:00 (1200 GMT) following the disaster on March 11.

A total of 2,779 people were injured.

The earthquake has become Japan's deadliest natural disaster since the earthquake of 1923 Great Kanto, which killed over 142,000 people.

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their homes and sought refuge in emergency facilities. (AFP)