Tokyo [Japan], July 29: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake has struck Japan's southern Kumamoto prefecture, knocking out power to thousands of homes, rupturing roads and causing a blast at a shopping mall where police say several people are presumed to have been killed and others remain trapped, as authorities warned of a risk of strong aftershocks.
Around 20 to 30 workers were unaccounted for at the prefecture's largest shopping mall, after it was rocked by an explosion in the aftermath of the earthquake on Tuesday afternoon, public broadcaster NHK said.
One hospital reported more than 50 injuries after the quake while another reported receiving around 40 wounded, including 10 in a serious condition, NHK said. Several more people were hurt when the tremors derailed a high-speed train.
A tsunami warning was initially issued but later lifted, and Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were found at three nearby nuclear power plants.
"We have already been informed that people have been injured. Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.
"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, the disaster management agency said, while hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help with the disaster recovery as aftershocks continued to rumble.
Shinkansen bullet trains and local trains in Kyushu have been suspended for safety checks, while the runway at the Aso Kumamoto Airport was closed, with "no prospect of resuming operations", according to a notice on the airport's website.
The worst incident appeared to be the explosion at an Aeon Mall in Kumamoto. Kazuya Tsurunaga told broadcaster TBS he heard the explosion while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300 metres (980 feet) from the 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."
Source: Qatar Tribune