A second plane carrying Russian rescuers back from tsunami-ravaged eastern Japan arrived in the Moscow region on Wednesday.

The returning Russians formed the biggest rescue team in the Japanese relief effort.

"The rescuers did everything they could," Russian deputy emergencies minister Ruslan Tsalikov said. "Unfortunately, we did not manage to find any survivors because the area we were working in was not just damaged by the earthquake, it was in the very path of the tsunami."

The confirmed death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 now stands at 9,408, while more than 14,700 are still missing.

MOSCOW, March 23 (RIA Novosti)