Rescuers were frantically searching on Wednesday for survivors of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that shook southern Japan, killing at least 13 people, knocking out power to thousands of homes and rupturing roads across the region.Eight people were pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall near the city of Kumamoto that was torn apart by an apparent explosion about an hour after Tuesday's earthquake. Of them, three have died.
Mall operator Aeon said four workers at the Kumamoto shopping center remained unaccounted for after checks of the roughly 2,700 staff. Customers had been evacuated right after the initial quake.
"Even now, there are people waiting to be rescued, and this is a race against time. We will marshal all available resources on the ground to save and rescue as many people as possible," Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters in Tokyo.
Authorities are investigating a possible gas explosion at the Aeon mall, media reported. Rescuers reported smelling gas inside the building but the cause of the incident was still under investigation, Japan's top government spokesperson Minoru Kihara said.
Emergency fire rescue teams, police and around 170 army personnel were focusing on areas of the building where calls for help had been received. More than 4,500 soldiers have been deployed to help with recovery efforts across the quake zone.
