TWO PEOPLE HAVE BEEN found alive amid the rubble and destruction of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake which struck Japan on 11 March.

An 80-year-old woman and a teenage boy were rescued from the ruins of a house in the north-east, where the earthquake and resulting tsunami wreaked most havoc.

Rescuers found the teenager on the roof of a house, calling for help, and he led them inside to the weak but conscious elderly woman. Both have been taken to hospital.

The good news comes amid otherwise bleak official announcements. In Miyagi Prefecture alone, police estimate there could be over 15,000 deaths. The BBC reports that that figure does not include numbers of missing and confirmed dead in other parts of the country.

The official death toll stands at 8,133 and more than 12,200 people are missing. Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless as a result of the natural disaster and living in basic shelters.

Nuclear authorities are still working to restore power to the Fukushima plant to get the cooling pumps back in action again and reduce the danger of overheating fuel.

- Includes reporting from the AP