13 confirmed dead after 7.1-magnitude earthquake quake in Japan’s Kumamoto: PM Takaichi

JAPANESE Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Wednesday (Jul 29) the government had confirmed that 13 people died after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the south-western prefecture of Kumamoto on Tuesday, with nearly 10,000 people staying in evacuation centers and shinkansen bullet train services remaining suspended.

Around 4,600 members of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces had been dispatched in response to the earthquake, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said, with 170 involved in rescue operations at a collapsed shopping centre.

“There are still people who are waiting to be rescued and it is a race against time,” Takaichi said. “We will mobilise our full strength to save as many people as possible.”

About 480 police personnel had also been dispatched from 11 prefectures. A Tokyo metropolitan police emergency rescue team specialising in disaster response headed by helicopter to participate in the search for the missing.

2 dead after blast rocks mall

After the quake on Tuesday afternoon, an explosion rocked a shopping mall in Kashima in Kumamoto Prefecture operated by the Aeon group. Local authorities said two women were confirmed dead, one woman was found unresponsive and five others were injured.

Around 200 people had been evacuated before the collapse of the mall’s second floor.

“I went shopping at Aeon yesterday at around noon. It’s terrifying to think that I could have been caught up in what happened,” said a 46-year-old woman who lives in the neighborhood. She said she was currently staying in a community centre as her house was without electricity.

The fatalities included a person who was rescued from a collapsed house in the city of Yatsushiro and later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Two people were badly injured, two were found unresponsive and seven were missing at a Nippon Paper Industries plant in the prefecture where a smokestack was badly damaged.

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Services on the Kyushu Shinkansen bullet train line remained suspended, according to its operator.

Some tram services had restarted in the city of Kumamoto, according to the Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau, which warned of suspensions in the event of another strong earthquake.

Meanwhile, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways cancelled 11 and two flights, respectively, due to the earthquake.

‘I couldn’t sleep’

JR Kumamoto Station was crowded with people in the morning. Riko Furuta, 23, stood in line at a taxi rank, heading home after spending the night at her office.

“I couldn’t sleep because the earthquakes continued throughout the night. It was more frightening than 10 years ago,” she said.

Some businesses in the region suspended operations in the wake of the temblor, while several thousand households were without electricity.

Honda Motor halted its factory in the town of Ozu through Wednesday morning, while operations were also suspended at two plants in the prefecture of chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron.

The quake also disrupted logistics, with Sagawa Express temporarily halting collection and delivery services in some areas. Japan Post suspended services at post offices across the prefecture.

Toyota Motor Kyushu briefly resumed operations at three plants in nearby Fukuoka Prefecture after conducting safety checks. But it later announced it would halt them again from Wednesday evening through late Friday given logistical issues and the situation at suppliers.

Aftershocks continued following the temblor, which registered the maximum of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in some areas of Kumamoto at 4.27 pm on Tuesday.

At that level, people cannot remain standing or move without crawling and may be thrown through the air, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The prefecture was hit by quakes of magnitude 6.5 on Apr 14, 2016, and magnitude 7.3 two days later. REUTERS