Chaos: Passengers crowd Mar Haneda International Airport outside Tokyo as foreigners scramble to flee the country amid radiation fears
17,000 British nationals could be evacuated as last ditch efforts are made to stop nuclear catastrophe
Rich scramble to book private jets out the country as fleeing passengers pack Tokyo airport
French say Japanese have 'visibly lost essential control' as they urge their citizens to get out
Plans are being drawn up to evacuate every British national in Japan amid mounting fears of a nuclear catastrophe. Thousands of Britons were last night warned to leave Tokyo and all other areas under threat of radiation poisoning.
Last ditch: A Japanese military helicopter - silhouetted top left - dumps water onto reactors 3 and 4 at Fukushima nuclear plant
The advice – echoed by other countries around the world – followed a meeting of the Cabinet’s emergency Cobra committee to discuss the meltdown-threatened Fukushima nuclear plant.
It heightened suspicions that the crisis at the plant – already ranked the second-worst nuclear disaster after Chernobyl – is worse than the Japanese authorities have publicly let on. Yesterday ‘last-ditch’ efforts were continuing at Fukushima to prevent a catastrophe with a Japanese army helicopter dumping water onto troubled nuclear reactor.
Collecting water: The Self-Defense Forces's helicopter scoops seawater on Japan's northeast coast en route to the Fukushima plant
A CH-47 Chinook helicopter began dumping seawater on the damaged reactor of Unit 3 at the Fukushima complex at 9.48am local time, said defense ministry spokeswoman Kazumi Toyama. The aircraft dumped at least four loads on the reactor, though much of the water appeared to be dispersed in the air.
The dumping was intended both to help cool the reactor and to replenish water in a pool holding spent fuel rods, Toyama said. The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said earlier that the pool was nearly empty, which might cause the rods to overheat.
Last night an official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that radiation levels at the plant had fallen steadily over the past 12 hours.
However, ministers were due to hold further talks last night on whether an immediate evacuation from Japan should be considered.
About 17,000 British nationals are thought to be in the country, mostly in Tokyo. Last night’s Foreign Office warning stopped short of ordering them to leave the country – a diplomatic gesture which will be welcomed by the Japanese government.
But officials conceded that in reality most Britons will have few options but to leave Japan if they want to heed the advice.
Thousands of Japanese citizens are already fleeing Tokyo for the south.
Officials yesterday insisted there was no significant risk to human health in Tokyo, which is less than 140 miles south of Fukushima.
But Europe’s energy chief Guenther Oettinger warned the huge plant was ‘effectively out of control’ – sparking fears of a meltdown, which could send a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere.
He warned of ‘further catastrophic events, which could pose a threat to the lives of people on the island’. Mr Oettinger predicted the dire situation could take a further turn for the worse ‘within hours’.
The Japanese public was also unconvinced by its government’s reassurances. The mayor of Minimisoma, which is 12 miles from the Fukushima plant, said: ‘We weren’t told when the first reactor exploded, we only heard about it on television. The government doesn’t tell us anything. We are isolated. They’re leaving us to die.’
The Foreign Office insisted there was ‘no real human health issue’ outside the 20-mile exclusion zone surrounding the plant.
But it warned that panic caused by the crisis meant there were ‘potential disruptions to the supply of goods, transport, communications, power and other infrastructure’ in Tokyo.
Officials confirmed that contingency plans were being drawn up for an airlift of British nationals if the crisis worsens. Talks have already been held with airlines about laying on extra flights.
The warning came as the Japanese authorities made increasingly desperate attempts to contain the crisis at the Fukushima plant.
Helicopters deployed to dump water on the plant were pulled out amid concerns about soaring radiation levels.
Officials were considering using water cannon – normally used to control riots – in a desperate bid to cool the overheating reactors, which have suffered a series of explosions.
Escape: residents gather up their belongings and form a queue as they wait to board a bus out of Sendai, north eastern Japan, yesterday
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