Southern Japan was rocked by a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake that left at least two people dead and triggered a chain of emergencies across Kumamoto Prefecture, including an explosion that ripped through a major shopping centre, building collapses, widespread power outages and damaged roads.
The government said rescuers working through the night pulled eight people from the Aeon Mall Kumamoto shopping centre, where the blast struck after the quake.
Two of those rescued — women in their 20s — were confirmed dead, while another person was reported to be in cardiopulmonary arrest.
The remaining five suffered injuries, though officials said none were life-threatening.
Emergency fire rescue teams, police and self-defence force personnel coordinated overnight at the site, focusing searches on parts of the building where calls for help had been reported.
People wait in a park after evacuating buildings following the earthquake in Kumamoto City
From Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters that the scale of the destruction was still being tallied in a region that was also devastated by a deadly quake a decade ago.
“We have already been informed that people have been injured. Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings,” Ms Takaichi said.
As aftershocks continued to rumble across Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu, about 300,000 people were instructed to head to evacuation centres.
‘Like volcanic ash was falling’
Video from the scene showed the force of the blast at the shopping centre — home to about 200 stores — shearing away part of one side, exposing steel beams and scattering debris across a parking lot.
Aeon, the mall’s operator, said customers and staff were evacuated immediately after the initial quake and that the precise cause of the later explosion remained unclear.
Broadcaster NTV reported that authorities were investigating whether a gas explosion may have been involved.
Kazuya Tsurunaga told TBS he was cleaning up dishes shattered by the earthquake inside a pub roughly 300 metres from the Aeon shopping centre when the blast hit.
“It was a huge impact,” he said. “A large cloud of smoke billowed up, and because the wind happened to be blowing and the wind direction was towards the shop, the area around us was in a state like volcanic ash was falling.”
Elsewhere, broadcaster NHK reported that multiple people were unaccounted for after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, while two hospitals were each said to be treating more than 50 people, including some in serious condition.
Operators also said several passengers riding high-speed trains when the quake struck were injured.
Buildings on fire
Officials were responding to multiple incidents in which buildings had partly collapsed or caught fire.
TV Asahi reported that one person died in a building collapse in a town near the epicentre.
Transport was also disrupted as large cracks tore into major highways, badly damaging some roads and snarling traffic.
Rail services were suspended and flights grounded.
In industry, TSMC — the world’s largest contract chipmaker — along with Sony and Fujifilm evacuated workers from their facilities after the quake. TSMC said in a statement that its site was unaffected and that operations were gradually resuming.
Tokyo Electron, which makes semiconductor equipment, said it would halt operations at its two Kumamoto factories through today, and Honda said it would temporarily idle its motorcycle plant in the area.
A damaged car is seen near the Aeon Mall Kumamoto
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the epicentre was about 20 kilometres south of Kumamoto City, central Kyushu’s largest city with a population of around 700,000.
An agency official urged residents in the hardest-hit areas to remain vigilant for about a week, warning of the potential for further strong quakes and an increased risk of landslides.
No irregularities at nuclear power stations
Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a belt of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, and experiences about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or higher.
Kyushu Electric Power said 48,000 households lost electricity following the quake, while railway operator JR Kyushu said it had halted services, including its high-speed bullet trains.
Kumamoto Airport closed its runway, forcing airlines to divert and cancel flights.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said there were no irregularities reported at nuclear power stations in the area.
A massive earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured another 2,739, according to an official count, and damaged thousands of buildings — including the walls of the city’s castle, one of its top tourist sites.
