Japan's tsunami victims mostly pensioners

Two-thirds of the victims identified in last month's tsunami in Japan were elderly and most of them drowned, police said.

The disaster on 11 March killed an estimated 27,500 people. Of the 11,108 confirmed deaths, 65 per cent of them were 60 or older. The ages of another 1,899 identified victims were not known.

The police said nearly 93 per cent of the victims had drowned. Others died from fires, being crushed or other causes. There were higher concentrations of elderly people living along the north-east coast.