Junior High School Boy Fatally Trapped Under Collapsed House in Wajima When Visiting Ishikawa Pref.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:57 JST, January 5, 2024

TOYAMA — A first-year junior high school boy from Toyama was killed in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake on Monday, the Toyama municipal government announced Thursday.

The boy’s father told The Yomiuri Shimbun that his son was 13 years old. The boy, his elder brother and his parents left their home in Toyama City on Monday morning to visit his mother’s family home in Wajima. The family was relaxing after lunch on the first floor when they were hit by the quake and became trapped under the collapsed house.

The father managed to escape the house and heard his sons’ voices coming from the collapsed first floor. After rescuing his elder son, the father next found his younger son and worked as hard as he could to get him out but was unable to rescue him in time.

“I knew he wasn’t breathing when I was trying to rescue him, but I still wanted to get him out of there,” the boy’s father said.

The boy’s paternal grandparents, who live next door to the family, mourned the boy, saying they will keep replaying the memory of him smiling when receiving New Year’s gift money and cheerfully leaving the house on Monday.

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