Overview
- A magnitude 7.1 quake struck Kumamoto on Tuesday, July 28, producing large-scale damage including partial collapse of the Aeon Mall in Kashima.
- After five days of operations, authorities ended the search at the Aeon Mall on Saturday after rescuers accounted for everyone who had been reported missing there.
- Rescuers pulled five people alive and recovered seven bodies at the mall; a separate chimney collapse at a Nippon Paper factory in Yatsushiro trapped 11 workers, of whom two were rescued and nine were confirmed dead.
- The prefecture’s official toll is 34 dead and about 103 injured, with over 180 homes destroyed, nearly 3,500 buildings damaged, more than 9,000 people in shelters, and nearly 70,000 homes without fresh water as temperatures reached 36.6°C.
- Thousands of Self-Defense troops, police and rescue workers remain deployed to continue searches, deliver water, fuel and shelter supplies, and support an ongoing probe into the explosion that Aeon believes was caused by a gas leak.