Two women in their 20s were confirmed dead after an explosion tore through a partially collapsed shopping centre in Kumamoto, as rescue crews scrambled to find dozens more missing following Japan’s most powerful earthquake in two years.
The blast at the Aeon Mall, which houses around 200 outlets, occurred shortly after a 6.8 magnitude quake struck southern Kyushu island on Tuesday, ripping away the upper section of the building and sending debris onto shoppers and staff. An Aeon spokesperson said customers and employees had been evacuated after the initial tremor, but the cause of the explosion remained unclear; a government official told reporters the mall reported a gas leak.
“At least 13 dead after 6.8 magnitude quake strikes Japan, dozens missing in mall collapse and explosion.”
By Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi raised the official death toll to at least 13, with hundreds injured. Rescue teams were still sifting through wreckage at the mall, where up to 30 people were unaccounted for, while at a nearby paper mill in Yatsushiro a collapsed chimney left two workers in cardiac arrest and nine others missing. Several passengers on a high-speed train were also injured after the chimney stack fell onto the carriage, local media reported.
The quake, which registered a maximum 7 on the Japanese shindo intensity scale, forced more than 150,000 people to evacuate, knocked out power to nearly 50,000 households and cut water to 140,000. Kumamoto Airport was closed indefinitely after its runway was damaged. Temperatures in the region were forecast to top 30°C on Wednesday, with high humidity raising the risk of heatstroke for those without air conditioning or water; large numbers of people spent the night in their cars, afraid of aftershocks.
Japan’s military mobilised 3,600 personnel and sent 20 aircraft to assess damage from the air, while hundreds of first responders from neighbouring prefectures arrived on Tuesday evening. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that areas hit hardest would remain at risk of further strong quakes and landslides for about a week, as the shallow earthquake triggered ongoing seismic activity. More than 60 aftershocks, ranging from magnitude 1 to 4, had been recorded by Wednesday morning. A tsunami warning was issued immediately after the main quake but was lifted within two hours.
A hospital employee told national broadcaster NHK: “People are coming in with burns and fractures from being trapped under objects due to the earthquake, and ambulances are constantly bringing in injured people. Inside the hospital, there are water leaks and electrical system failures.” The region was also hit by a deadly quake in 2016 that left more than 50 dead and thousands of homes damaged.
