video transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: At least nine people were found dead on Sunday (March 3) one day after a powerful blizzard ripped through the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Rescue workers near the town of Nakashibetsu uncovered a family of four, who had all died in their car, which had been engulfed in snow when the blizzard swept through on Saturday (March 2). A 44-year-old mother and her three children, including 11-year-old Hiroki Miyashita, died of carbon mono-oxide asphyxiation after their vehicle's exhaust pipe became clogged with snow. In the same town a 23-year-old woman, whose name was not released by local authorities, was found frozen to death near her stalled car. It is believed she tried to escape from her car, which had become snowed-in but succumbed instead to the cold outside. In the town of Yubetsu, 53-year-old Mikio Okada was found dead in a snow field. He had wrapped his body around his nine-year-old daughter to protect her from the cold. Okada had picked her up from a local children's play facility before they went missing. The daughter was found alive on Sunday but suffering from severe frostbite. In the ski-resort of Furano, another man was found dead, when he tried to walk home after his car had stalled. One woman was found frozen 100 metres (328 feet) from her home in another part of the island.