More than 10,000 people were confirmed dead or missing as of Tuesday following last week's catastrophic earthquake, the worst casualty total from a natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Hanshin Earthquake, the National Police Agency said.

The NPA said 3,373 people were confirmed dead and 6,746 were missing as of 8 p.m. But with many unidentified bodies turning up in quake-hit coastal areas, the death toll was expected to jump further. By prefecture, 1,619 people were confirmed dead in Miyagi, 1,193 in Iwate and 506 in Fukushima.

Meanwhile, about 25,000 victims had been rescued, including a woman who was found 92 hours after the killer earthquake and tsunami hit.