A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake has turned parts of southern Japan into a desperate search zone, killing at least 13 people near the city of Kumamoto and leaving rescuers scrambling to reach those believed trapped under debris, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.
“Even now, there are people waiting to be rescued, and this is a race against time. We will marshal all available resources on the ground to save and rescue as many people as possible,” Ms Takaichi told reporters at her office in Tokyo a day after the quake struck, raising the toll from three deaths reported earlier.
The shaking cut electricity to thousands of households and split roads across the region, compounding the challenges for emergency crews moving through damaged areas.
In one of the most dramatic incidents, eight people were pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall near Kumamoto that was ripped apart by an apparent explosion about an hour after the earthquake, including two women in their 20s who were found dead.
The Aeon shopping centre in Kumamoto was rocked by an explosion in the aftermath of the earthquake
Local media said authorities were looking into the possibility that a gas blast caused the explosion.
Fire rescue teams, police and army personnel concentrated their efforts on sections of the building where calls for help had been reported.
Officials cautioned that the overall scope of damage and casualties was still coming into focus.
NHK reported that about 20 to 30 workers were unaccounted for yesterday.
Separately, seven people were reported missing after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, and a local government official said four others suffered serious injuries.
Hospitals in the area were said to be treating dozens of patients as the flow of injured residents continued.
Across the prefecture — a region that endured a deadly earthquake a decade ago — authorities said about 260,000 people were told to head to evacuation centres.
The epicentre was located roughly 20km south of Kumamoto City, the largest city in central Kyushu with a population of about 700,000.
Authorities urged residents in the hardest-hit areas to remain vigilant for roughly a week, warning of the potential for further strong quakes and the heightened danger of landslides.
People wait in a park after evacuating buildings following the earthquake in Kumamoto City
With more than 36,000 homes still without power, officials also voiced concern about heat stroke as temperatures climb to around 34 degrees Celsius.
Some hospitals overstretched
A hospital in Uki City, close to the epicentre, said the earthquake-triggered power outage left it unable to operate normally.
“It’s become like a field hospital,” the head of the administrative department told NHK.
Another hospital in the city said it had stopped taking new patients after reaching capacity, having treated 86 injured people in the aftermath of the quake, including three with serious injuries.
Train operators said several passengers on high-speed services at the time of the earthquake were also hurt.
Footage showed the force of the blast at the Aeon shopping centre: one side of the complex — home to about 200 stores — had been torn away, leaving steel beams exposed and scattering debris across a parking lot.
A damaged car is seen near the Aeon Mall Kumamoto
In financial markets, Aeon shares dropped 1.9% in early Tokyo trading, while the benchmark index rose 0.8%.
Major manufacturers with facilities in the region, including Tokyo Electron and Honda, said they would halt operations at plants today.
TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, said it evacuated workers from its nearby plant as a precaution but began restarting operations late on Tuesday.
Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a vast zone of volcanoes and oceanic trenches, and experiences about 20% of the world’s earthquakes measuring magnitude 6.0 or higher.
Kumamoto itself is no stranger to seismic catastrophe: an earthquake 10 years ago killed 275 people, injured another 2,739 and damaged thousands of buildings, including the walls of the city’s castle, a major tourist attraction, according to official figures.
