TOKYO: The death toll from a devastating earthquake that struck Japan on Tuesday has climbed to at least 13, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Wednesday, as a shopping mall was badly damaged and a factory in the southwestern region was disrupted.
The dead included two women at the Kashima shopping mall and three more elsewhere in Kumamoto province, where a 7.1-magnitude tremor hit on Tuesday, Takaichi said. Another seven people were reported to have been severely injured.
The mall appeared to have been gutted by a gas explosion, according to a government source, with ceilings and walls collapsing. Initial reports had said between 20 and 30 people could have been trapped inside, but NHK, citing police, said the figure was “lower than that.”
NHK reported police as saying the exact number was not yet known, adding that it was certain staff members were trapped but it was unclear whether members of the public were among them.
Police also said no safe route of access into the facility had been found, meaning rescuers had been unable to enter.
In Yatsushiro, a Nippon Paper Industries factory was affected after a smokestack partially collapsed. The local government said nine people were unaccounted for at the site.
Authorities were working to confirm casualties and assess damage as aftershocks were feared to complicate rescue efforts.
