THE mood at the Japanese Consulate at Altamount Road turned increasingly sombre throughout the day yesterday as news and footage of the devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake followed by the tsunami kept trickling in.
THE mood at the Japanese Consulate at Altamount Road turned increasingly sombre throughout the day yesterday as news and footage of the devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake followed by the tsunami kept trickling in.
Officials and staff at the consulate were constantly monitoring the news and keeping a tab on the happenings in their home country.
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"People at the consulate have been watching the news since morning and have tried to get in touch with various ministries in Japan but they haven't been able to get through.
News channels and websites have been our main sources of information," said an official, on condition of anonymity.
"We haven't stopped working as people have been coming in to collect their visas and we have been getting calls from Japanese people in Mumbai to ask about the situation," he added.
Pratik Rao, who is based in Delhi and works for a Japanese company, had gone to the consulate to collect his visa for a business trip to Japan next week.
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"I spoke to my one of my friends who lives in Tokyo and he told me that the situation is not that bad in the city. He said he had just felt a few tremors," said Rao.
The cultural secretary at the consulate said he was busy trying to gather data and get in touch with people in the affected areas. He refused to comment further.
On alert
The quake struck at 2:46 pm local time (11:16 am IST) and tsunami alerts were issued across the Pacific
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