Police: Deaths in Japan's Miyagi may pass 10,000

TOKYO (AP) - Police in Japan's northeastern Miyagi prefecture say they estimate that the death toll in Miyagi alone will likely exceed 10,000. Miyagi is one of the areas worst affected by a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that hit Friday.

Miyagi police spokesman Go Sugawara said Sunday that the prefecture's police chief told a gathering of disaster relief officials that his estimate for deaths in the prefecture was more than 10,000.

There were only 379 officially confirmed deaths in Miyagi out of a total of 801 as of Sunday afternoon.