Japan earthquake death toll reaches 13 as mall rescue efforts continue

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi says 13 people have been found dead after a powerful earthquake shook part of southwestern Japan, as efforts continued Wednesday morning to find the missing.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto, a southern area on the main island of Kyushu, late Tuesday afternoon, its epicentre 20km (12 miles) south of Kumamoto City, which has a population of about 700,000.

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.

“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.

Rescuers pulled eight people from the rubble of a partially collapsed Aeon shopping mall early on Wednesday, as well as the bodies of two women in their 20s.

Twenty to 30 mall workers were unaccounted for on Tuesday, public broadcaster NHK said.

An explosion ripped the mall apart an hour after the quake, with authorities investigating a possible gas explosion, local media reported.

Seven people are also missing after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, while four others were seriously injured, a local official said.

‘A huge impact’

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.