YATSUSHIRO, Japan: Rescuers frantically searched for survivors on Wednesday, a day after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake 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 explosion just over an hour after Tuesday’s earthquake. Of them, three died.
Another three workers at the shopping center remain unaccounted for after checks of the roughly 2,700 staff, Akio Yoshida, president of mall operator Aeon, told a press briefing on Wednesday. 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,” Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters in Tokyo. “We will marshal all available resources on the ground to save and rescue as many people as possible.”
Overall, 13 people were killed, five were in cardiac arrest and at least eight others seriously injured, authorities said. Hospitals were reported to be treating dozens of other patients.
