Death toll rises to 18 as rescuers search rubble for quake survivors in Japan

Soldiers and emergency workers have been combing through a badly damaged shopping centre and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in south-western Japan.

The magnitude 7.1 earthquake that hit on Tuesday in the Kumamoto area on the southern main island of Kyushu also left at least 62 people injured, six of them seriously, officials said.

The tally has been steadily growing, fanning fears it may continue to rise.

The sweltering weather heightened worries about the survivors as rescuers braved the heat. It remained unclear how many people might still be missing.

Some of the most serious damage was at the Aeon Mall in the city of Kashima, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened.

The company said some 3,000 customers were evacuated to a car park before a gas explosion happened in another part of the shopping centre, where some people were still working.

The shopping centre’s second floor collapsed, trapping people. Witnesses said the explosion shook the area as much as the quake.

Three people remained missing, while four deaths were confirmed at the shopping centre site, according to Aeon.

“We take it seriously that an explosion happened and precious lives were lost,” Aeon president Akio Yoshida told a news conference in Kumamoto, where he bowed deeply along with two other executives.

Japanese media footage of the shopping centre showed that part of a ceiling had caved in, and metal parts and other debris were scattered about as helmeted and masked rescue workers searched the area.

In nearby Yatsushino, a chimney collapse at a Nippon Paper Industries factory killed five people while seven others were rescued from the debris, according to the Kumamoto prefectural government disaster team.

Four people were still believed to be trapped there, it said.

Nearly 34,900 homes were still without electricity and some 15,000 homes were without running water, Kumamoto officials said.

More than 8,800 people left their homes to stay in more than 400 shelters, where power sources were being added so the evacuation centres had air conditioning.

Aerial police footage showed some homes in residential areas were completely flattened, including a few that crumbled into a nearby river.

Japan’s Self Defence Forces are joining rescue workers in the search and rescue operations. Hundreds of professionals were helping with the effort, including firefighters from Taiwan.

“There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.”

Ms Takaichi said the federal government was preparing to deliver food and other necessities to hard-hit areas. She also offered her condolences to the victims and sympathy to their relatives, while urging those affected by the quake to take care of themselves amid the hot weather.

Bullet train services remained suspended. Although operations at Aso Kumamoto airport resumed on Wednesday, some airlines cancelled flights as a precautionary measure.

Kumamoto was hit with a deadly quake in 2016 that killed at least 50 people. Japan is one of the most quake-prone nations in the world.