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The crushed wreckage of a car presumed to belong to a 22-year-old university student ― the last missing person in the Kumamoto Earthquake which struck the region on April 16 ― has been found in a river here, prompting relatives to request a relaunch of search efforts.
The wreckage of Hikaru Yamato’s car was found between two rocks in a river in Minamiaso village by his parents, who had continued searching for him on their own since he went missing in the devastating quake, Fuji TV reported. No human remains were found in the crushed yellow Toyota car.
The area, designated as a zone at risk of secondary disasters, was exempted from search activities on May 1, with the sole exception of a single day search in June, Kumamoto prefectural representatives said.
Following the car’s discovery, Yamato’s family filed an official appeal to the Kumamoto Prefectural Government on Monday, requesting the relaunch of search efforts and the retrieval of the car. The government is expected to comply with the request in the beginning of August.
“We have moved a step forward,” Hikaru’s mother Shinobu said tearfully in an interview with Fuji TV. “I feel that Hikaru is telling us he is nearby, I feel that he is calling us. I will not give up (searching for him) until I can embrace him with my hands.”
Yamato is believed to have been struck by a major landslide while driving his car at the time the quake struck.
© Japan Today
3 Comments
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Ron Barnes
so sad for the parent's
Fadamor
After 100+ days of decomposition (assuming they find the body downriver from the car), she may have second thoughts about embracing the corpse with her hands.
Magnus Roe
That was in rather poor taste Fadamor.
So is that entire region evacuated? That river goes through a flat valley that is populated and most of it is farmed, you'd expect someone to stumble across a car wreck within reasonable time.