Japan earthquake death toll rises to 18 as rescue efforts continue

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that struck southwestern Japan has risen to at least 18, as soldiers and rescue workers continued searching for people trapped in a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed homes.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu late Tuesday afternoon also left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously, local officials said. It is still unclear how many people might still be missing, with fears that the tally may continue to rise.

The epicentre of the earthquake was 20km (12 miles) south of Kumamoto City, which has a population of about 700,000.

Some of the most serious damage was at the Aeon Mall shopping center in Kashima city, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened. The company said some 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before a gas explosion happened in another part of the mall, where some people were still working.

The mall’s second floor collapsed, trapping people. Witnesses said the explosion shook the area as much as the quake.

Three people remain missing, while four deaths were confirmed at the mall site, according to Aeon President Akio Yoshida.

“We take it seriously that an explosion happened and precious lives were lost,” Yoshida told a news conference in Kumamoto.

Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi offered sympathy and condolences to victims and their families, while urging those affected by the quake to be careful in the hot weather as thousands of homes are without power.

“There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” Takaichi said. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.”

Hundreds of soldiers were deployed to assist with rescue and recovery efforts, and authorities instructed some 260,000 people to go to evacuation centres.

A chimney collapse at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in nearby Yatsushino also killed five people, while seven others were rescued from the debris, according to the Kumamoto prefectural government disaster team.

Four people were still believed to be trapped there, it said.

A Vietnamese technical intern was killed after a crane fell on him at a factory where he worked, according to the Vietnamese government. He had arrived in Japan in January. Seven other Vietnamese technical interns at the factory evacuated safely.

Separately, a Vietnamese woman married to one of the workers was injured when a wall collapsed and was being treated at a hospital.

‘A huge impact’

Nearly 34,900 homes were still without electricity and some 15,000 homes without running water, Kumamoto officials said. More than 8,800 people left their homes to stay in over 400 shelters, where power sources were being added to provide air conditioning.

Hospitals are treating dozens of injured patients.

One hospital in Uki city, near the epicentre, ‌said it was unable to function due to a ⁠power outage caused by the earthquake.

Another hospital in the city said it had suspended admissions as it could no longer handle additional emergency cases after accepting 86 injured people, including three with serious injuries.

Several passengers on high-speed trains at the time of the quake were also injured, operators said.

Aeon Mall was one of the worst-hit, with one side, which has about 200 stores, torn away in the blast, strewing debris and exposing steel beams.

Kazuya Tsurunaga told broadcaster TBS he heard the explosion while cleaning up after the earthquake in a pub 300 metres (980ft) away.

“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.”

Businesses suspend operations

Some companies with plants in the area, including Tokyo Electron, ⁠a semiconductor maker, and Honda, suspended operations through Wednesday.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, evacuated workers from its plant as a precaution but resumed operations late Tuesday.

Roads were also badly damaged, with large cracks splintering major highways and snarling traffic on Tuesday evening.

Authorities warned residents in the hardest-hit areas to remain alert for strong aftershocks over the coming week, as well as the risk of landslides.

Japan sits on the “Ring of Fire”, a belt of volcanoes and oceanic trenches surrounding much of the Pacific Ocean, and accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.

A huge earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people, injured 2,739 and damaged thousands of buildings, including the walls of the city’s castle, a famous tourist site.

Parts of these same stone walls at Kumamoto Castle, still undergoing repairs after the 2016 earthquakes, collapsed in Tuesday’s quake.