Another body was pulled Monday from a resort in northern Japan hit by a powerful earthquake, bringing the total death toll from the disaster to 10, an official said.

"The body of a man was recovered in the morning. We are performing an autopsy and trying to confirm his identity," a local police spokesman told AFP.

The body was pulled from the mud-covered rubble of a resort in Miyagi prefecture, which was hit Saturday by a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale.

It was the most powerful quake to rock an inland area of the tremor-prone nation in eight years.

The body was found in the ruins of the Komanoyu inn, a secluded resort with natural hot springs that was smashed to pieces by a severe mudslide.