February 17, 1996
Web posted at: 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT)
From Correspondent May Lee
TOKYO (CNN) -- A blanket of fresh snow did nothing to cover up the darkest day of the week-long long search for victims trapped in a tunnel in the mountains of Hokkaido.
On Saturday, exactly one week after a boulder the size of a 20-story building crashed through the highway tunnel, rescuers removed the last of the 20 bodies known to be trapped in the rubble.
"We have found everyone and they are all dead," a police spokesman said.
All but one of the victims were found in a passenger bus that had been flattened to the height of just three feet. The bus and another vehicle were traveling through the tunnel when the 50,000-ton slab of rock crushed them.
Before recovering the bodies, 120 members of a special police rescue squad had to remove five giant boulders on top of the bus as well as tons of debris that encased it.
The bodies were so mangled, officials said, it was difficult to determine whether some victims were men or women.
More than a hundred family members had stood vigil outside the tunnel hoping against hope that somehow life would be found inside. Four times they gave rescuers permission to use dynamite to reach the victims.
Since the cave-in last Saturday, rescue operations had come under heavy criticism. Officials were barraged with complaints of unnecessary delay, indecision and poor judgment.
Although faulty construction has been dismissed as a cause of the collapse, Japan's construction minister, Eiichi Nakao, personally apologized to the families of the victims late Friday night.
But for those who have lost loved ones forever, official gestures were all but meaningless.
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Reuters contributed to this report.
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