Japan earthquake and tsunami: 4-month-old baby girl and father reunited in Ishinomaki

Japan earthquake and tsunami: 4-month-old baby girl and father reunited in Ishinomaki

Amid the mangled towers of wreckage and flooded debris, a country in despair is grateful for any cheerful news.

And today, the discovery of a baby girl who had survived for three days after the tsunami that devastated Japan provided just that.

Accounts as to how the four-month-old had survived were lost in translation - but it is believed she was plucked helpless from the rubble in Ishinomaki, in the state of Miyagi.

Against the odds, she was rescued apparently safe and unharmed after being spotted by a member of Japan's Self-Defence Force.

Joy: The member of Japan's Self-Defence Force member holds the four-month-old baby girl in Ishinomaki, northern Japan after her rescue

As soldiers went from house-to-house to look for bodies, they discovered this remarkable child.

A man, pictured below, later arrived claiming to be the baby's father. Some reports suggested the father had been with the child for the last three days.

But the image of the child, snug inside a pink jacket being held by a member of the Japanese army, provided some better news for the tsunami-hit country.

But today, the joyful reunion of father and daughter was interrupted by another tsunami warning.

 

 

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Amid sirens and the fear of further devastation, the fear on his face is clear to see, as he tries to flee to safety.

The country has been hit by more than 100 aftershocks since Friday's 9.0 magnitude earthquake, with experts warning a second huge quake - almost as powerful as the first - could hit the country, triggering another tsunami.

Thousands of people have been killed, and some 180,000 have been evacuated from an area surrounding an unsafe nuclear power plant, which became unstable in the disaster.

... And fear: Upon hearing another tsunami warning, a father tries to flee to safety with the baby girl he has just been reunited with

Devastation: A 'HELP' sign is written on the ground of a primary school (bottom of picture, centre) near the coast in tsunami-hit Ishinomaki. A baby girl was remarkably found wrapped in a pink jacket after three days alone