Overview
- A shallow magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto on Tuesday, causing widespread building damage and triggering multiple industrial incidents that have left 38 people dead, prefectural officials said.
- Authorities ended a five-day search at the Aeon Mall in Kashima after rescuers said all those reported missing there had been accounted for, following an explosion the company believes was caused by a gas leak.
- At a Nippon Paper Industries plant in Yatsushiro a falling smokestack crushed parts of the site, trapping workers and resulting in multiple confirmed deaths while other search-and-recovery efforts continue there.
- Tens of thousands of residents have been displaced, more than 9,000 are in evacuation centres, and nearly 70,000 to 79,700 households lack fresh water while fuel shortages and extreme heat have worsened health risks including a confirmed heat-stroke death.
- Thousands of Self-Defense Force troops, police and rescue workers remain deployed as the central and prefectural governments deliver supplies, press for thorough searches and begin probes into the mall blast and factory collapse.