At least one person was killed Tuesday when a strong earthquake struck southwestern Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture, as rescue teams continue searching for at least 10 people missing at a shopping mall.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said authorities are still assessing the full extent of the damage.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) initially reported the quake as magnitude 7.1 before revising it to 6.8.
The quake struck at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) at 4.27 pm local time (0727GMT), about 5 kilometers east of Uto in Kumamoto, according to the USGS.
Germany’s GEOFON seismic monitoring network also initially measured the quake at magnitude 6.4 before revising it to 6.8.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said the quake had an intensity of 7 on the Japanese scale of 0 to 7, in the hardest-hit areas, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The quake in the prefecture at the center of Kyushu registered a maximum seismic intensity of 7 in Uki and Hikawa and an upper 6 in surrounding areas, according to Kyodo.
It also registered an upper 5 in the neighboring Kagoshima prefecture and a lower 5 in the Fukuoka and Saga prefectures.
JMA warned that strong aftershocks are possible, including earthquakes registering a seismic intensity of up to 7 in the next week, particularly during the next two to three days.
Later, a magnitude 5.6 quake occurred at 5.08 pm (0808GMT), 16 kilometers northeast of Tsunagi, Kumamoto, according to the USGS.
JMA has recorded long-period ground motion in the region, a type of long-lasting tremor capable of rocking high-rise buildings. It mainly affects those on higher floors.
Premier says roads, bridges damaged, buildings collapsed during quake
Takaichi said the quake caused injuries, power outages, fires, damage to roads and bridges, and building collapses.
At least one person was killed when a house collapsed.
Some 50 injured people were transported to the hospital.
Kumamoto prefecture officials said they believe 10 people are unaccounted for at a shopping mall in Kashima Town.
The power outage affected 48,000 households.
The Cabinet Office Disaster Management Division said earlier that a tsunami advisory had been issued for the Ariake and Yatsushiro seas, urging residents to leave coastal areas immediately. The advisory was later lifted.
Kyushu Electric Power said that no abnormalities were reported at the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Kagoshima prefecture or at the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant in Saga prefecture, reported Kyodo.
The Shinkansen bullet train and local rail services were also suspended across the Kyushu region.
The Defense Ministry said the Self-Defense Forces had begun aerial reconnaissance and would prioritize life-saving operations, according to a statement on the US social media company X.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said 3,600 Self-Defense Forces personnel have been deployed, and that troops are conducting rescue operations at Aeon Mall Kumamoto.
The runway at Kumamoto Airport was temporarily closed after the quake, and later reopened, but domestic flights to and from the prefecture were canceled.
Sections of the Kyushu Expressway collapsed following the quake, NHK footage showed.
More than 217,430 people in Kumamoto, Nagasaki, and Fukuoka prefectures have been ordered to evacuate, according to the Nippon News Network.
A freight train derailed and overturned in Kumamoto. No injuries were reported.
Teams race to rescue those trapped in Aeon Mall Kumamoto
Takaichi wrote on X that she has established the “Emergency Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters,” with herself as the head and relevant cabinet ministers as members, to supervise rescue and relief operations.
Rescue teams are racing to free those trapped at Aeon Mall Kumamoto in Kashima Town after they were buried beneath parts of the second floor that collapsed following an explosion.
Aerial footage from an NHK helicopter showed sections of the shopping center’s exterior walls torn away, exposing parts of the building’s framework.
Television footage showed Japanese firefighters setting up color-coded triage mats in the parking lot of the damaged mall, with red designated for critically injured patients requiring immediate life-saving treatment, yellow for those with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, and green for the walking wounded.
Kumamoto Prefectural Police said earlier that many people are believed to have died at the mall, and it would take time to confirm the death toll, according to TBS News.
“We will respond with the full resources of the government and the determination to do everything possible,” Takaichi added.
Japan, one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, is located along the “Ring of Fire” and accounts for about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.