A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the island of Kyushu in southern Japan on Tuesday, leaving at least 13 people dead and hundreds injured. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi stated that rescue efforts remained ongoing, describing the situation as time-sensitive as authorities worked to locate and extract survivors from damaged structures.
The rural town of Hikawa, located near the epicenter, experienced some of the most severe damage, with numerous older residential buildings collapsing. Residents spent the night sheltering in vehicles parked outside the town hall, where municipal staff provided food and water. Volunteer firefighters reported successful rescues, including pulling an injured but alive man from the rubble of a completely flattened home. Survivors expressed fear about ongoing aftershocks and concern about extreme heat, with temperatures expected to reach 35 Celsius on Wednesday.
The earthquake also damaged the Kumamoto Aeon mall, apparently triggered by a gas explosion. Multiple employees were caught in the blast after evacuating customers, with up to 30 initially reported trapped and four remaining missing. A 16-year-old shopper who escaped moments before the explosion described being overwhelmed by dust and smoke outside the building.
Nearby Uki City also sustained maximum-level shaking on the Japanese shindo scale. A woman in her 40s protected her children from falling furniture during the quake and made it to an evacuation shelter with three generations of her family. In the Asakawa district, rescue efforts for an elderly man trapped in a flattened home were abandoned after repeated aftershocks made the operation too dangerous for volunteer firefighters.
The disaster recalled memories of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake that killed more than 275 people, which the prefecture had commemorated just months earlier. That earlier quake began with a 6.2-magnitude foreshock followed two days later by a 7-magnitude temblor, a pattern residents would be mindful of in the coming week.
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