"At the Aeon mall, 11 people were pulled out as of last night (Thursday), among them seven dead. To make sure that no one else is inside, we are finalising our confirmation with the assistance of professionally trained dogs," government spokesman Minoru Kihara said.Local media quoted the operator of the mall, which was evacuated before being ripped apart by the suspected gas blast over an hour after Tuesday's quake, as saying that all employees were now accounted for.
The quake caused widespread damage © Philip FONG / AFP
At the other major disaster site following the 7.1-magnitude jolt, a paper factory, nine bodies have now been recovered and search and rescue operations were terminated, Kihara said.Two survivors were also extracted from the site where a smokestack collapsed, he said, putting the overall death toll from the quake in the southwestern region of Kumamoto at 35.The quake caused widespread damage, flattening homes, damaging bridges, triggering fires and leaving tens of thousands of residents without power and water in temperatures forecast to approach 40C (104F) this weekend.
As of Friday, around 4,500 households across Kumamoto still had no electricity © Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP
