Elderly Japanese man kills himself as evacuation looms

A 102-year-old Japanese man from a village near the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has committed suicide, with his family saying that the prospect of evacuation may have been the cause, Jiji news agency reported on Thursday.

A 102-year-old Japanese man from a village near the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has committed suicide, with his family saying that the prospect of evacuation may have been the cause, Jiji news agency reported on Thursday.

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Jiji reported that the man, confirmed dead on Tuesday, was the oldest resident of Iitate village, which is located about 40 kilometres (24 miles) from the Daiichi plant and is included in an expanded evacuation zone announced on Monday.

Japan expanded the evacuation zone around the plant taking into account the high levels of radiation that have accumulated in some areas after the powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11 caused the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.