Kumamoto, July 29 (Jiji Press)--Police, firefighters and Self-Defense Force personnel continued search-and-rescue operations on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan the previous day. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that the death toll from the earthquake had reached 13 as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, including cases whose connection to the disaster was still being investigated. While many calls for rescue assistance have been received across the prefecture, the full extent of the damage has yet to be determined, and the prefectural disaster response headquarters is working to assess the situation. The earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.1 occurred at around 4:27 p.m. on Tuesday, registering a seismic intensity of 7, the highest level on Japan's scale, in the city of Uki and the town of Hikawa in Kumamoto. The cities of Yatsushiro and Kumamoto in the same prefecture recorded an intensity of upper 6. According to the prefectural disaster response headquarters, about 200 people evacuated retail giant Aeon Co.'s Aeon Mall Kumamoto shopping facility in the town of Kashima in Kumamoto before an explosion occurred and caused part of the facility's second floor to collapse. Eight people who had been trapped were located and brought out of the building. Of them, two women in their 20s were later confirmed dead and one person remains in cardiopulmonary arrest. Authorities said there are more people trapped inside the shopping mall building, and search efforts are focused on areas where rescuers have received responses to their calls. At Nippon Paper Industries Co.'s plant in the city of Yatsushiro in Kumamoto, a chimney collapsed, reportedly trapping 11 people. Two of them were pulled from the site in cardiopulmonary arrest, while the remaining nine are still unaccounted for. Numerous houses collapsed in the prefecture, and eight fires broke out in the cities of Uki, Yatsushiro and Kumamoto. A total of 4,744 people from 2,180 households in 36 municipalities have been evacuated. Water outages have affected parts of the cities of Uki and Yatsushiro and the town of Hikawa. In addition, the towns of Kosa and Mifune are expected to experience water service interruptions due to declining reservoir levels. Power outages have impacted around 37,000 households in nine municipalities. With daily high temperatures forecast to reach 35 degrees Celsius or above in the coming days, authorities have urged residents to take precautions against heatstroke. Kumamoto Prefecture also experienced earthquakes registering the maximum seismic intensity of 7 on April 14 and April 16, 2016. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that earthquakes of up to seismic intensity 7 could occur over the next week and urged residents to remain vigilant. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]