Japan’s Prime Minister says rescuers are ‘in a race against time’ after powerful earthquake
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Soldiers and emergency workers entered a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses to search for survivors trapped Wednesday after a powerful earthquake killed at least 18 people and left many missing in southwestern Japan.
Bullet train and airport operations remained suspended and damage was being assessed a day after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday afternoon.
It was not clear how many people were missing.
Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have been cooperating with rescuers in the search and rescue operation. Firefighters from Taiwan had also arrived to assist in the effort.
“There are people still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” said Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. “We will all go out and search and rescue as many people as possible.”
Another major damage occurred at the Aeon Mall in Kashima, a city that was bustling with thousands of people when the quake struck. The company said 3,000 customers were evacuated to the car park before the gas explosion in another part of the mall, where some people were still working.
The second floor of the mall collapsed, trapping people. Eyewitnesses said the explosion shook the area like an earthquake.
Three people are still missing, and four died in the mall, according to Aeon.
“We take it seriously that the explosion happened and precious lives were lost,” Aeon president Akio Yoshida told a news conference in Kumamoto, where he bowed with two other officials.
In nearby Yatsushino, a chimney collapse at a Nippon Paper Industries factory killed five people and seven others were rescued from the rubble, according to the Kumamoto government disaster team. Four people were still trapped there.
About 34,900 homes do not have electricity and 15,000 do not have water, Kumamoto officials said. More than 8,800 people left their homes to live in more than 400 shelters, where power sources were added to air-condition evacuation centers, as Japan grapples with an ongoing heat wave.
A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture, leaving many people stranded after a shopping mall collapsed. Earthquake survivor Andrew Mitchell reflects on what happened and shares why earthquake preparedness is still important.
Aerial police images showed that some houses in the residential areas were completely flattened, including several that had fallen into the nearby river.
Takaichi said the federal government is preparing to deliver food and other necessities to the hard-hit areas. He also expressed his condolences to the dead and their relatives, while urging those affected by the earthquake to take care of themselves as it is hot.
The Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train is still suspended on Wednesday. Aso Kumamoto Airport was resuming operations after closing one runway on Tuesday, but some airlines canceled flights as a precaution.
Japan is one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world. Kumamoto was hit by a deadly earthquake in 2016 that killed at least 50 people and damaged many buildings, including the Aeon shopping mall.
