Residents have been moved further away from a stricken Japanese nuclear plant as the exclusion zone is extended and repair works halted.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant was crippled after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated much of northeast Japan on 11 March.
Engineers have abandoned their latest attempt to stabilise a stricken reactor at the plant. The quake knocked out its cooling systems, causing fuel rods to overheat, the BBC reports.
The new evacuation zone was decided upon in April as radiation levels were expected to increase.
The towns being evacuated are more than 30km from the plant, which is continuing to leak radioactive material.
