Major quake hits southern Japan, workers missing after mall blast

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture on Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing roads and leaving some trapped and others presumed dead inside a partially collapsed shopping mall.

Speaking to reporters from her office in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said authorities were still assessing the full extent of the damage in the area, which was devastated by a deadly quake a decade 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," Takaichi said. "I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location."

Around 300,000 people have been instructed to go to evacuation centres, and hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help with rescue operations as aftershocks continued to rumble in the area, on Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu.

'LIKE VOLCANIC ASH WAS FALLING'

Around 20 to 30 workers at the prefecture's largest shopping mall were unaccounted for after it was rocked by an explosion in the aftermath of the quake, NHK said.

Fire services earlier said multiple people were trapped inside.

Local news outlets quoted police saying several had died or were presumed to have perished in the incident, although Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.

One side of the mall, which houses around 200 stores, was torn away, exposing steel beams and strewing debris across a vast parking lot, footage showed. Several ambulances and fire engines were parked outside, as rescue teams searched for survivors.

A spokesperson for mall operator Aeon said customers and employees were evacuated right after the initial quake and that the exact cause of the ensuing explosion was unclear. Authorities are investigating a possible gas explosion, broadcaster NTV reported.

Kazuya Tsurunaga told TBS he was stunned by the blast while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300 metres from the Aeon mall.

"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."

Multiple people were also unaccounted for after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, broadcaster NHK reported, while two hospitals were each reported to be treating more than 50 people, some in serious condition. Several passengers aboard high-speed trains at the time of the quake were also injured, operators said.

BUILDINGS ON FIRE

Authorities said they were responding to multiple incidents where buildings had partially collapsed or had caught fire. One person died in one such collapse in a town near the epicentre, TV Asahi reported.

Some roads were also badly damaged, with large cracks splintering major highways, snarling traffic. Rail services were suspended and flights grounded.

TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, Sony and Fujifilm evacuated workers from their plants following the quake. TSMC said in a statement late Tuesday that its site was unaffected and operations were gradually resuming.

However, Tokyo Electron, a semiconductor equipment maker, said it was suspending operations at its two factories in Kumamoto through Wednesday, while Honda said it would also temporarily idle its motorcycle factory there.

The quake’s epicentre was about 20 km south of Kumamoto city, central Kyushu's largest city with a population of around 700,000.

Residents in the areas that felt the biggest tremors must be on alert for further strong quakes for about a week, as well as for the risk of landslides, an official for the Japan Meteorological Agency said. About 100 small aftershocks have hit Kumamoto already since the initial jolt, JMA said.

TSUNAMI WARNING LIFTED

Located along the "Ring of Fire" of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or more.

A tsunami warning was issued immediately after Tuesday's quake, but was later lifted.

Kyushu Electric Power said 48,000 homes had lost power as a result of the latest quake, while railway company JR Kyushu said that it had suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains. Kumamoto airport also shut its runway, as airlines diverted and cancelled flights.

Telecoms operators KDDI and Docomo said there was disruption to their mobile phone services due to power shortages and transmission-line failures.

There were no irregularities reported at the nuclear power stations in the area, Japan's nuclear regulation authority said.

A massive earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured a further 2,739, according to an official count, and damaged thousands of buildings including the city's castle, a top tourist site.

Some portions of the stone walls at the castle also collapsed as a result of Tuesday's quake, an official at the castle's office said.

With thousands of homes still without power as night fell, authorities warned residents about the risk of heatstroke as temperatures were set to hit 34 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.