5 dead, dozens injured after severe earthquake strikes Japan

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake shook Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday, leaving several people dead and dozens of others injured or missing after part of a shopping centre and a huge chimney at a paper factory collapsed, officials said. A tsunami advisory was issued but quickly lifted.

At least five people, including two who were found without vital signs at the mall late on Tuesday, were confirmed dead, and about 30 others were injured across the Kagoshima prefecture, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on Wednesday.

In Kashima Town, the earthquake collapsed the second floor of the Aeon Mall shopping centre, trapping an unknown number of people there, according to the fire department in the prefectural capital of Kumamoto. Japan’s NHK national television said the collapse came after an explosion, believed to have been triggered by a gas leak at the building.

Four people were pulled out with injuries and taken to a hospital, while 10 others were unaccounted for, the Kumamoto prefectural emergency response team said. It said the extent of the damage was still being investigated as the search and rescue effort continued.

A 35-year-old male shopkeeper told Japan’s Asahi newspaper that he fled the building after the quake alert and heard an explosion sounding like a bomb blast about an hour later. When he turned around, he saw white smoke billowing from the mall.

A female employee at the mall told Japanese broadcaster TBS television that she and her colleagues smelled gas when they returned to their shops after helping customers to evacuate the building, then heard the explosion.