TOKYO (AFP, Reuters): A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit southern Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture on July 28, 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 at her office in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the 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,” Takaichi said.
“Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings.
“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 southern island of Kyushu.
Multiple people were unaccounted for after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, public broadcaster NHK reported.
‘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, while police said “quite a few” were presumed dead in the incident, broadcaster TBS reported.
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.
Kazuya Tsurunaga told TBS he heard the explosion while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300m 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.”
One hospital reported more than 50 injuries, and another around 40, including 10 in a serious condition, NHK said.
Several people on a high-speed train at the time of the quake were also injured, Nikkei newspaper said.
Buildings on fire
Several other buildings were also on fire or partially collapsed, according to footage from NHK, while large cracks appeared on major roads, including an elevated highway.
Rail services were halted and flights grounded.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, evacuated workers from its plant in the area as a precaution, a spokesperson for the firm said.
Sony and Fujifilm also evacuated staff from their plants in the area.
Tokyo Electron, another major chipmaker, said it was suspending operations at its two factories in Kumamoto through July 29, while Honda said it would also temporarily idle its motorcycle factory there.
The quake’s epicentre was about 20km south of Kumamoto, central Kyushu island’s largest city with a population of around 700,000.
Residents in the areas that felt the biggest tremors must beware of further strong quakes for about a week as well as the risk of landslides, an official for the Japan Meteorological Agency (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 the quake on July 28, but was later lifted.
Kyushu Electric Power said 48,000 homes had lost power as a result of the 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.
History of quakes
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 the July 28 quake, an official at the castle’s office said.
With thousands of homes still without power as night fell, the authorities warned residents about the risk of heatstroke as temperatures were set to hit 34 deg C on July 29.
A quake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit northern Japan on June 25 but caused no deaths or major damage.
Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant.
On April 20, 2026, a tremor measuring 7.7 hit the country’s north, injuring at least 10 people and shaking large buildings in Tokyo.
This prompted the authorities to issue a special advisory warning of an increased risk of earthquakes of magnitude 8.0 or stronger.
The advisory was lifted after a week. -- Reuters/AFP
