Fears for Britons after Japanese earthquake

Fears are growing for British nationals who may have been caught in the devastating Japanese earthquake.

Two days on from the disaster, the Foreign Office said there were no confirmed casualties from the UK, but they received more than 3,200 calls from concerned friends and relatives.

Japanese authorites fear the death toll could be in the tens of thousands.

Prime minister Naoto Kan appealed to all citizens to unite in overcoming what he says is the country's worst crisis since the Second World War.

Mr Kan said the nation's future will be decided by the choices made by each Japanese person, and urged everyone to join in their determination to rebuild the nation following the massive earthquake and tsunami.

Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said he was not prepared to put a definitive figure yet on the number of Britons caught up in the disaster, but said there would "almost certainly" be foreigners affected.

He told Sky News: "I am not in a position to make a definitive statement about the number of British nationals caught up in it but clearly it is a huge devastating disaster and there almost certainly will be foreign nationals involved."

Some seismology experts today said the huge quake - one of the largest ever recorded - actually had a magnitude of 9.0, rather than the widely reported figure of 8.9.

Estimates of the death toll from the disaster rose to more than 10,000 in one state alone, as millions of survivors remained without drinking water, electricity and food along the pulverised north-eastern coast.

Speaking following a meeting this morning of the Government's emergency Cobra committee Mr Browne said: "The scale of the devastation is absolutely massive so there is plenty to discuss even from the British response level, let alone obviously what the Japanese authorities are having to deal with."

At just before 11am today (8pm local time) a UK International Search and Rescue (ISAR) team, organised by the Department for International Development, arrived in Japan to assist in the rescue effort.

The 63-strong team will join the United States' Urban Search and Rescue teams from Fairfax County and Los Angeles County at Misawa Airport, and they will meet a representative from the British Embassy in Tokyo.

Both teams will remain at the US Misawa air base overnight, before joining the international effort to search for live victims that may be trapped in the debris, a Hampshire Fire and Rescue spokesman said.

The UK-ISAR team is made up of Urban Search and Rescue specialists from Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, West Sussex, West Midlands, and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Services.

Mr Browne said the British Embassy in Tokyo was being "heavily reinforced" and extra staff were being flown in from across Asia, London and the Americas to boost the support provided to British citizens.

Meanwhile, the nuclear crisis at Fukushima intensified as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and evacuated more than 170,000 people.

Amid fears of possible radioactive contamination, nuclear plant operators are trying to keep temperatures down in a series of reactors - including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be under way - to prevent the disaster getting worse.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said that a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, the latest reactor to face a possible meltdown.

It follows a blast yesterday in the power plant's Unit 1, as operators attempted to prevent a meltdown there by injecting sea water into it.

Mr Edano said: "At the risk of raising further public concern, we cannot rule out the possibility of an explosion.

"If there is an explosion, however, there would be no significant impact on human health."

Mr Edano said the radioactivity released into the environment so far was so small it did not pose any health threats.

The official added neither Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor was near the point of complete meltdown, and he was confident of escaping the worst scenarios.

A complete meltdown - the collapse of a power plant's systems and its ability to keep temperatures under control - could release uranium and dangerous contaminants into the environment and pose major, widespread health risks.

Up to 160 people, including 60 elderly patients and medical staff who had been waiting for evacuation in the nearby town of Futabe, and 100 others evacuating by bus, might have been exposed to radiation, according to Ryo Miyake, a spokesman from Japan's nuclear agency.

The severity of their exposure, or if it had reached dangerous levels, was not clear. They were being taken to hospitals.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said: "We take this incident extremely seriously even though there is no reason to expect a similar scale of seismic activity in the UK.

"It is essential that we understand the full facts and their implications, both for existing nuclear reactors and any new programme, as safety is always our number one concern."

English teacher Jenny Tamura Spragg, 33, who lives in Saitama, said British casualties were "inevitable".

She described how people were queueing for miles for petrol, supermarkets were selling out of basic food and power saving cuts were being introduced.

She said: "Supermarkets have sold out of rice, bread, milk, bottled water and other daily necessities as people stock up out of precaution or fear that another big one will hit.

"People do come to a sudden standstill at almost every aftershock.

"As far as British expats safety is concerned, I would say that British casualties is an inevitable reality.

"The expat community here are reacting differently. Some are considering booking flights out of Japan as a precautionary measure for fear of a radiation leak.

"Others are more afraid of another big quake and don't want to be alone in a foreign country.

"And others, those who've been here longest, seem to have adopted the Japanese air of taking it all in their stride, if you like. Mixed emotions."