Haunting images taken in a town close to Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been released showing a community frozen in time. The new set of photographs, taken in the town of Futaba 12 miles from the Fukushima plant, bear grim similarities to those taken in Pripyat, two miles from the Chernobyl power plant. Children's play areas lie deserted, lonely dogs wander through empty streets, shoes and personal keepsakes are left hastily abandoned in the two towns, both the scenes of hasty evacuations after explosions at the nearby nuclear power stations. In March this year explosions ripped the roofs and walls off three reactors in Fukushima, Japan, knocking out their cooling systems and causing them to overheat. The Japanese government was forced to order a mass evacuation and around 80,000 people had to leave immediately. A vast area is still uninhabitable around the plant and experts estimate the decontamination fight could cost Japan up to £80 billion. It is now six months after the devastating earthquake and tsunami, but the Fukushima plant is still leaking low-level radiation and authorities say it could be 20 years before residents are able to return to their homes and property.
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