A British rescue team has touched down in Japan to help the earthquake-ravaged country search for survivors.

Fifty-nine firefighters, four doctors and two search-and-rescue dogs landed at a US base near Sendai.

Sendai in northern Japan was devastated by the post-earthquake tsunami. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands more are still missing.

David Warren, the UK ambassador to Japan, told Sky News consular teams were working through a “long list” of names of people who remain unnaccounted for.

“We must assume that there are Britons involved up here,” he said.

“Our task over the next few days is to get into the townships and prefectures where accurate registration of foreign nationals is kept by Japanese local authorities and get as much detail as we can.”

The British team, organised by the Department for International Development, will work alongside American search and rescue experts using dogs and electronic devices to search among the debris and buildings for survivor.

Kent firefighter Dave Hudson, 47, said: “We’re itching to get started.”

Officials estimate that more than 10,000 people were killed in the disaster and according to Warren, some British nationals are still unaccounted for.

The majority of the 17,000 Brits living in Japan tend to be concentrated in Osaka or Tokyo.

English teacher Jenny Tamura Spragg, 33, who lives in Saitama, described how people were queueing for miles for petrol, shops were selling out of basic food and power saving cuts were being introduced.

She said: “Supermarkets have sold out of rice, bread, milk, bottled water and other daily necessities as people stock up out of precaution or fear that another big one will hit. As far as British expats safety is concerned, I would say that British casualties is an inevitable reality.”

The towns of Minamisanriku and Kesennuma, towns north of the epicentre were washed away in the tsunami, which struck last Friday.

Seismology experts said the huge quake – one of the largest ever
recorded – actually had a magnitude of 9.0, rather than the previously
reported figure of 8.9.

It triggered the destructive wave is the most powerful ever recorded in Japanese history.

Concerned friends and relatives should contact the Foreign Office on the special number 020 7008 0000.