WAJIMA: Japanese rescuers battled the clock and powerful aftershocks on Tuesday to find survivors of a New Year`s Day earthquake that killed at least 50 people and caused widespread destruction.

Japanese news agency Kyodo put the death toll to 57, citing local officials, as rescuers comb through the rubble.

The 7.5 magnitude quake that rattled Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Honshu triggered tsunami waves more than a metre high, sparked a major fire and tore apart roads.

On the Noto Peninsula, the destruction included buildings damaged by fire, houses flattened, fishing boats sunk or washed ashore, and highways hit by landslides.

`I`m amazed the house is this broken and everyone in my family managed to come out of itunscathed,` said Akiko, standing outside her parents` tilting home in the badly hit city of Wajima.

The way 2024 started `will be etched into my memory forever`, she said after what she called the long and violent earthquake on Monday. `It was such a powerful jolt,` Tsugumasa Mihara, 73, said as he queued with hundreds of others for water in the nearby town of Shika.`Very extensive damage has been confirmed, including numerous casualties, building collapses and fires,` Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said after a disaster response meeting.

`We have to race against time to search for and rescue victims of the disaster.` Aerial news footage showed the terrifying scale of a fire that ripped through the old market area of Wajima, where a seven-storey commercial building collapsed. Quake damage impaired rescue efforts to put out the blaze.

Most of the houses in the coastal city of Suzu collapsed, according officials cited by Kyodo.

`The situation is devastating, as about 90 per cent of houses have been completely or nearly completely destroyed,` Suzu Mayor Masuhiro Izumiya was reported as saying at a prefectural governmentmeeting.

Almost 33,000 households were without power in the region, which saw temperatures touch freezing overnight, the local energy provider said. Many cities were without running water.

The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.5.

Japan`s meteorological agency measured it at 7.6, and said it was one of more than 210 to shake the region through Tuesday evening.

Several strong jolts were felt early on Tuesday, including one measuring 5.6 that prompted national broadcaster NHK to switch to a special programme.

`Please take deep breaths,` the presenter said, reminding viewers to check for fires in their kitchens.

Tsunami warning lifted On Monday, waves at least 1.2 metres (four feet) high hit Wajima and a series of smaller tsunamis were reported elsewhere.

Warnings of much larger waves proved unfounded and on Tuesday, Japan lifted all tsunami warnings.

Images on social media showed cars, houses and bridges in Ishikawa wobbling violently as terrified people cowered in shops and train stations.-AFP