Reuters : A 7.1-magnitude earthquake killed at least 13 people near the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto and rescuers are frantically searching for survivors trapped beneath the rubble, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Wednesday.
“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,” Takaichi told reporters at her office in Tokyo a day after the quake struck, raising the toll from three deaths reported earlier.The quake knocked out power to thousands of homes and ruptured roads across the region.
Rescuers pulled eight people from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall early on Wednesday. Two women in their 20s were killed as an apparent explosion of unknown origin ripped the mall apart about an hour after the earthquake.
Authorities are investigating a possible gas explosion, local media reported.
Emergency fire rescue teams, police and army personnel were focusing on areas of the building where calls for help had been received.
The full extent of the disaster remained unclear. Around 20 to 30 mall workers were unaccounted for on Tuesday, public broadcaster NHK said. Seven people are also missing after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries (3836.T), opens new tab factory, while four others are seriously injured, a local government official said. Hospitals were reported to be treating dozens of patients.Across the prefecture, which also suffered a deadly earthquake a decade ago, around 260,000 people were instructed to go to evacuation centres, authorities said.
The quake’s epicentre was about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Kumamoto City, central Kyushu’s largest city with a population of around 700,000.
Authorities have warned residents in the areas that felt the biggest tremors to be on alert for further strong quakes for about a week, as well as for the risk of landslides.
With more than 36,000 homes still without power, authorities are worried about the risk of heat stroke as temperatures soar to around 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
