SAJJAD PURVEZ - Japan denies news of 'eight-day survivor'

A man thought to have survived for eight days in the rubble of Japan's earthquake and tsunami zone was actually an evacuee who had returned to his house, a military spokesman said on Saturday.

Troops had found the man - aged in his 20s, apparently in shock and unable to speak - inside a wrecked house in the disaster area of Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, the Self-Defence Forces (SDF) said earlier.

"When the person was transported to hospital, a fire department official recognised him as an evacuee who had been in a centre for a week and who had tried to return to his home," an SDF spokesman later told AFP.

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The man had temporarily returned home, together with his family, and was alone on the second floor of his half-destroyed house when he was found by a pair of troops, Jiji Press said, citing SDF and hospital sources.

The man was identified as Katsuharu Moriya, Kyodo News agency reported.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11 triggered a giant tsunami that flattened Japan's northeast coast and killed 7,197, according to the latest police death toll, with almost 11,000 officially listed as missing.

© 2011 AFP