Dramatic new pictures have emerged of the moment the Tsunami first hit the Japanese coastline.
The wave crashes over the seawall carrying away everything in its path, including boats that topple over the wall and are smashed into a bridge.
Cars were simply washed away, crashing into each other and buildings.
The pictures, obtained by ANN, were shot by a cameraman standing on a balcony high above the water. Other men are seen filming the same scenes.
The footage also shows another wave approaching the shore.
More than 1,400 people were killed by the quake and resulting tsunamis and hundreds more were still missing, according to officials, but police in one of the worst-hit areas estimated the number of dead there alone could eventually top 10,000.
The scale of the multiple disasters appears to be outpacing the efforts of Japanese authorities to bring the situation under control more than three days after the initial quake.
Rescue teams were struggling to search hundreds of kilometres of devastated coastline, and hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centres cut off from rescuers and aid.
At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake, and food and fuel were quickly running out across the region.
Watch the video for the full report.
3 News