A powerful earthquake struck Japan’s Kyushu region, injuring at least 50 people, damaging infrastructure and prompting mass evacuations.
A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu on Tuesday, injuring at least 50 people, trapping several inside a partially collapsed shopping mall, disrupting transport and utilities, and prompting authorities to order the evacuation of about 300,000 residents.
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The earthquake struck at 4:27 p.m. local time (07:27 GMT) and registered the maximum intensity of 7 on Japan’s Shindo seismic scale, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). A tsunami warning issued immediately after the quake was later lifted.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said authorities were still assessing the full extent of the damage and the number of casualties.
“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,” Takaichi told reporters in Tokyo.
“I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location,” she said.
Public broadcaster NHK reported that one hospital had treated more than 50 injured people. The Nikkei newspaper said several passengers aboard a high-speed train were also hurt when the earthquake struck.
Emergency services said multiple people were trapped inside an Aeon shopping mall after an explosion occurred following the earthquake, leaving part of the building collapsed. Aeon said customers and employees had been evacuated immediately after the initial tremor and that the cause of the subsequent explosion remained unclear.
Kazuya Tsurunaga, who was cleaning up broken dishes inside a pub about 300 meters from the shopping mall, said he heard the blast shortly after the earthquake.
“It was a huge impact,” he said. “A large cloud of smoke billowed up, and because the wind happened to be blowing towards the shop, the area around us was in a state like volcanic ash was falling.”
Television footage broadcast by NHK showed fires and partially collapsed buildings, while large cracks appeared on major roads, including an elevated highway. Some sections of the stone walls surrounding Kumamoto Castle also collapsed, according to a castle official.
Around 48,000 households lost electricity following the quake, Kyushu Electric Power said. Telecommunications companies KDDI and Docomo reported disruptions to mobile phone services caused by power outages and transmission-line failures.
The earthquake also severely disrupted transport. JR Kyushu suspended rail services, including high-speed bullet trains, while Kumamoto Airport closed its runway, forcing airlines to divert or cancel flights.
Authorities instructed about 300,000 residents to evacuate to emergency shelters. The earthquake’s epicenter was about 20 kilometers south of Kumamoto, the largest city on central Kyushu, with a population of around 700,000.
The JMA warned that residents in the hardest-hit areas should remain alert for strong aftershocks over the coming week and for possible landslides.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities had been detected at nuclear power plants in the affected region.
The quake also disrupted industrial operations. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, evacuated workers from its local facility as a precaution. Sony and Fujifilm also evacuated employees from plants in the area while assessing the impact of the earthquake.
Japan is among the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, lying along the Pacific Ring of Fire and accounting for about 20% of earthquakes measuring magnitude 6.0 or greater worldwide. The country experiences seismic activity on an almost daily basis.
Kumamoto was devastated by a major earthquake a decade ago that killed 275 people, injured 2,739 and damaged thousands of buildings, including the city’s historic castle.
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.