Disaster in Japan Live Blog: March 20

Follow the latest events around the Pacific Rim after an 9.0-magnitude earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a devastating tsunami. Blog: Mar11-12 - Mar13 - Mar14 - Mar15 - Mar16 - Mar17 - Mar18 - Mar19 (All times are local in Japan GMT+9)

The Chinese embassy in Tokyo says more than 6,000 of its nationals in Japan's disaster-hit areas have been voluntarily evacuated, with half returning home and the rest holding up in various emergency shelters, including in Niigata. 7:30am An estimated 300 engineers are battling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima nuclear power plant. The crisis has also set back nuclear power plans around the world. Work reportedly advanced on restarting water pumps used to cool overheating nuclear fuel. On Saturday, Hidehiko Nishiyama, the deputy-general at Japan's Nuclear Safety Agency, said: We are making progress ... [but] we shouldn't be too optimistic