Thirteen people confirmed dead and many more trapped or missing after Japan hit by 7.1-magnitude quake

At least thirteen people have died after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing roads and leaving some trapped and others presumed dead inside a partially collapsed shopping mall.

Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency confirmed the deaths on Wednesday and said the figure included two people in a badly damaged shopping mall and three more elsewhere in the south-western Kumamoto region hit by the tremor.

“We have received reports of seven people with serious injuries and 29 with minor injuries. Furthermore, as of 7am today, 9186 people have sought refuge in 506 evacuation centres across five prefectures, including Kumamoto and Fukuoka,” government spokesman Minoru Kihara said.

Kumamoto has already been hit by about 100 small aftershocks since the initial jolt, and the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that earthquakes of a similar scale to the 7.1-magnitude quake could occur in the next few days.

Thousands of homes were without power over night, and authorities have warned residents about the risk of heat stroke with temperatures set to hit 34C on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters from her office in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said authorities were still assessing the full extent of the damage in the area, which was 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,” Takaichi said.

“I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location.”

About 300,000 people have been instructed to go to evacuation centres, and hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help with rescue operations as aftershocks continued to rumble in the area, on Japan’s south-western island of Kyushu.

About 20 to 30 workers at the prefecture’s largest shopping mall were unaccounted for after it was rocked by an explosion in the aftermath of the quake, NHK said.

Fire services earlier said several people were trapped inside.

Local news outlets quoted police saying several had died or were presumed to have perished in the incident, although Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.

One side of the mall, which houses about 200 stores, was torn away, exposing steel beams and strewing debris across a vast parking lot, footage showed.

Several ambulances and fire engines were parked outside as rescue teams searched for survivors.

A spokesperson for mall operator Aeon said customers and employees were led out right after the initial quake and that the exact cause of the ensuing explosion was unclear.

Authorities are investigating a possible gas explosion, broadcaster NTV reported.

Kazuya Tsurunaga told TBS he was stunned by the blast while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300 metres from the Aeon mall.

“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.”

At least two people were seriously injured and multiple people were unaccounted for after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, broadcaster NHK reported, while two hospitals were each reported to be treating more than 50 people, some in serious condition.

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

Authorities said they were responding to multiple incidents where buildings had partially collapsed or had caught fire.

One person died in one such collapse in a town near the epicentre, TV Asahi reported.

Some roads were also badly damaged, with large cracks splintering major highways, snarling traffic.

Local transportation links were affected by the force of the quake. Train services on Kyushu island were suspended and Kumamoto International Airport, which serves the regional capital of more than 700,000 people, said it was closed.

Across the region, local police reported at least 12 collapsed houses, including four in which individuals had been trapped.

The quake’s epicentre was 20km south of Kumamoto city, central Kyushu’s largest city with a population of about 700,000.

Residents in the areas that felt the biggest tremors must be on alert for further strong quakes for about a week, as well as for the risk of landslides, an official for the Japan Meteorological Agency said.