A magnitude 6.0 quake jolted Fukushima Prefecture Wednesday morning.

NHK reported that there were 25 aftershocks of magnitude 2.0-6.3 from 22:23 of Monday to 17:33 of Tuesday.

Damage caused by the killer quake and ensuing tsunami is expanding while social unrest is on the increase due to ceaseless aftershocks.

The death toll reached 9 301 and the number of the people reported missing climbed to 13,786 as of 09:00 Wednesday, said the National Police Agency, adding that this is the worst disaster since the great earthquake in Kanto.

Some 130,000 houses were damaged in the quake-hit areas.

240,000 inhabitants are left without the supply of water and electricity does not yet reach 221,000 families.

In the meantime the radiation caused by the explosions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant does not show any sign of improvement.

Experts were of the views that Reactor No. 3 among the six reactors of the plant was fraught with the most potential danger because the meltdown of its core might cause the leakage of highly poisonous plutonium.

Reactor No. 4 is in the same dangerous state as all the fuel rods are fully exposed in the reactor.

Radiation 1,600 times higher than normal levels has been detected in an area about 20 kilometers from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday in a survey.

It was reported that radioactive materials three times the normal level were detected from the drinking water in a populated area near the power plant that day.

Radioactive iodine at levels 127 times higher than the legal concentration limit and radioactive cesium 25 times higher were detected in seawater near the water discharging outlets of the Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization expressed concern that radioactive substances contained in foods might be accumulated in human bodies, urging the Japanese authorities to stop selling foods contaminated by radiation.