Rescue work ongoing after Japan quake kills 13

KUMAMOTO, Japan — A major earthquake that severely damaged a shopping mall and a factory in Japan killed at least 13 people, officials said Wednesday, as rescuers desperately tried to reach survivors feared trapped in the wreckage.

The 7.1-magnitude quake struck the southwestern region of Kumamoto prefecture on Kyushu island on Tuesday afternoon, causing widespread damage, sparking fires and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power.

“Thirteen people have died,” Takaichi said a day after the tremor that registered at the highest level on Japan’s shindo scale of seismic shaking.

“Extensive damage has been confirmed, including casualties, collapsed buildings, fires and damage to roads,” Takaichi told reporters, adding that officials were confirming whether all the fatalities were caused by the tremor.

The dead on the island of Kyushu included two women in the mall and three more elsewhere, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency told AFP earlier. Seven people were severely injured.

The mall in the town of Kashima was apparently gutted by a gas explosion, a government source told the Kyodo news agency, collapsing ceilings and walls.

“The explosion occurred after the customers and staff had evacuated,” a spokesman for the mall’s operator Aeon told AFP.

Eight people were rescued from the mall, five of whom had injuries, a local official told AFP.

Initial reports said that as many as 20 to 30 people were trapped inside but broadcaster NHK cited police early Wednesday as saying that the number was “lower than that.”

“The exact number is not known. It is certain that staff members are trapped, but it is unclear whether any members of the public are among them,” NHK quoted police as saying.

They added that no safe route of access has been found into the facility, meaning that it has not been possible to enter so far.

At the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, where damage included a partially collapsed smokestack, the local government said that nine people were unaccounted for.

Across Kumamoto — hit by two quakes in as many days in 2016 that killed 273 people — 36,880 households and facilities had no power on Wednesday morning, officials said.

The tremor sparked several fires, collapsed buildings, damaged bridges — including part of one pedestrian walkway that collapsed into a river — and capsized a freight train.

Footage verified by AFP showed heavy vehicles, street lights and traffic lights swaying. Elsewhere, vehicles on a two-lane road were seen carefully navigating sections of buckled pavement.

Footage also showed parts of a wall at the centuries-old Kumamoto Castle collapsing.

Many roads were closed and high-speed shinkansen train services were suspended in the region.

The Japanese military has mobilized 3,600 personnel for disaster relief operations and sent 20 aircraft to assess the damage from the air, the defense minister said.

Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

 

Source: Manilatimes