Fire destroys ancient Japanese relics

Priceless early examples of Japanese lacquer-ware pottery and other ancient artefacts have been destroyed in a fire at an excavation site.

The fire gutted a storage building where the items were being kept for protection during the winter.

Officials say the destroyed artefacts included examples of 9,000-year-old lacquer-ware which were believed to be the oldest in the world.

More than 80,000 items were lost in the fire.

The artifacts had been moved to the building from a number of excavations at prehistoric Japanese sites on Hokkaido.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service