3 bodies pulled from wreckage

Rescue teams digging through a ravine buried in mud pulled three bodies from a hot springs inn on the outskirts of Kurihara, Japan, bringing the death toll to at least nine after a powerful earthquake.

Soldiers caked in mud recovered the bodies of the inn’s 80-year-old owner and two others buried when the magnitude 7.2 quake struck early Saturday, triggering several major landslides.

Four more people were believed to still be buried. An additional 100 living in a hamlet nearby remained stranded and had to be slowly airlifted out by police and military helicopters.