The death toll from the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck near Kumamoto in southern Japan has risen to 13, as rescue teams continue searching for survivors trapped beneath collapsed buildings.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the rescue effort remained a race against time.
“There are still people waiting to be rescued. We will mobilise every available resource to save as many lives as possible,” she told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
The powerful quake, which struck on Tuesday, cut electricity to tens of thousands of homes, damaged roads and caused widespread destruction across the region.
Rescuers pulled eight people alive from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall early Wednesday. However, two women in their 20s were killed after an explosion of unknown origin ripped through the mall about an hour after the earthquake. Authorities are investigating whether the blast was caused by a gas leak.
Emergency responders, including firefighters, police officers and military personnel, are focusing search efforts on sections of the mall where cries for help were reported.
The full scale of the disaster remains unclear. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that between 20 and 30 mall workers were still unaccounted for, while seven people remain missing after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory. Four others at the factory suffered serious injuries.
Hospitals across the prefecture are treating dozens of injured people, with some medical facilities struggling to cope. One hospital in Uki City said a power outage had severely disrupted operations, while another suspended new admissions after receiving 86 injured patients, including three in critical condition.
Authorities have ordered around 260,000 residents to evacuate to emergency shelters. The earthquake’s epicentre was located about 20 kilometres south of Kumamoto City, the largest city in central Kyushu.
Officials have warned residents to prepare for possible aftershocks over the coming week and remain alert to the risk of landslides. With more than 36,000 households still without electricity and temperatures expected to reach 34°C, authorities are also concerned about heat-related illnesses.
The Aeon shopping mall, one of the largest retail centres in the prefecture, suffered extensive damage. One side of the building was torn away by the explosion, exposing steel beams and scattering debris across the parking area. Aeon said all customers and employees had been evacuated after the initial quake, and the cause of the explosion is still under investigation.
Several major manufacturers, including Tokyo Electron and Honda, suspended operations at plants in the affected area. Semiconductor giant TSMC temporarily evacuated workers from its local facility as a precaution before gradually resuming operations later on Tuesday.
The earthquake also caused major damage to highways, with large cracks appearing on roads and disrupting traffic.
Japan sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most seismically active regions, and experiences about 20% of the world’s earthquakes measuring magnitude 6.0 or higher.
The latest disaster comes a decade after the devastating 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, which claimed 275 lives, injured more than 2,700 people, and caused widespread damage, including to the historic Kumamoto Castle.
