A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture today, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of homes, tearing open roads and leaving rescuers racing to reach people trapped or feared dead inside a partly collapsed shopping centre.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, speaking to reporters from her Tokyo office, said officials were still trying to determine the scale of the destruction in a region scarred by a deadly earthquake 10 years 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,” Ms Takaichi said.
“I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location.”
A derailed train carriage is seen following the earthquake
Between 20 and 30 workers at the prefecture’s largest shopping centre remained unaccounted for after an explosion shook the complex following the quake, broadcaster NHK reported.
Fire services had earlier said several people were trapped inside the building.
Police were quoted by local media as saying several people had died or were believed to have been killed in the incident, though Reuters could not immediately verify those reports.
Video from the scene showed one side of the shopping centre, home to about 200 stores, ripped open, with steel beams exposed and debris scattered across a sprawling car park. Ambulances and fire engines lined the area as rescue crews searched the wreckage for survivors.
A spokesperson for Aeon, the shopping centre operator, said customers and staff had been evacuated immediately after the first tremor and that the cause of the subsequent blast was not yet known. Broadcaster NTV said authorities were examining whether a gas explosion was involved.
Watch: Cameras capture violent shaking as 7.1 magnitude tremor hits Japan’s Kyushu island
Kazuya Tsurunaga told TBS he was clearing broken dishes inside a pub about 300 metres from the Aeon shopping centre when the blast jolted him.
“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.”
NHK reported that several people were also missing after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory. Two hospitals were each said to be treating more than 50 people, including some with serious injuries. Operators said a number of passengers travelling on high-speed trains when the quake struck were also hurt.
Authorities said emergency teams were dealing with multiple reports of buildings partly collapsing or catching fire. TV Asahi reported that one person died in a building collapse in a town near the epicentre.
Transport links were badly disrupted, with deep cracks splitting major motorways and causing traffic chaos. Rail services were halted and flights were grounded.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, along with Sony and Fujifilm, evacuated employees from their plants after the quake. TSMC said in a statement this afternoon that its site had not been affected and that operations were gradually restarting.
Tokyo Electron, a semiconductor equipment maker, said it was suspending work at its two Kumamoto factories through tomorrow, while Honda said it would also temporarily shut its motorcycle plant in the prefecture.
The earthquake was centred about 20km (12 miles) south of Kumamoto city, the largest city in central Kyushu, where roughly 700,000 people live.
An official from the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that residents in the hardest-hit areas should remain alert for more strong earthquakes over the next week, as well as the danger of landslides.
JMA said Kumamoto had already been shaken by about 100 small aftershocks since the first major jolt.
Japan sits on the ‘Ring of Fire’, the arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partially encircles the Pacific Basin, and accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.
A tsunami warning was issued immediately after today’s quake, but it was later withdrawn.
People wait in a park after evacuating buildings following the earthquake in Kumamoto City
Kyushu Electric Power said 48,000 homes were left without electricity because of the latest quake. JR Kyushu, the regional railway company, said it had stopped services, including high-speed bullet trains. Kumamoto airport also closed its runway, forcing airlines to divert or cancel flights.
Mobile operators KDDI and Docomo said their services had been affected by power shortages and transmission-line failures.
Japan’s nuclear regulation authority said no abnormalities had been reported at nuclear power stations in the area.
A major earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured another 2,739, according to an official tally. It also damaged thousands of buildings, including Kumamoto Castle, one of the city’s leading tourist attractions.
An official at the castle’s office said parts of its stone walls also collapsed in today’s earthquake.
As darkness fell with thousands of households still without power, authorities urged residents to guard against heatstroke, with temperatures forecast to reach 34C tomorrow.
